The counter punch is a great way to make an opponent pay for brining the offense. In another great article and video by Wilson Pitts he shows some drills to become an effective counter puncher which could be key in the combat sports of MMA and boxing. Don’t forget to visit Wilson’s website! Enjoy the article and video and keep training hard!
Many MMA fighters come straight in, swinging, and get countered. Because of the way they stand up & charge in they eat the counter punch. When you take a punch as you move forward it multiplies the impact.This is not a good idea.
Let’s talk about how to fight a counter puncher. Most but not all counter punches are hooks, if you walk in standing straight up and miss a punch or a combination you put yourself in range for the hook. So, the rule is you “counter a counter puncher.” You make them go first but mess up their timing and make them miss. When you feint you freeze them and then you control the distance with your feet. Eddy Fuch said at the longer range “a right hand counters a left hook every time.”
Take a look at the 15th round of the first Hedgemon Lewis/Jose Napoles [12-14 -1971 Forum, Inglewood, California] fight to see a clinic on all the ways Fuch taught to counter a left hook counter puncher. Hedgemon Lewis was a very good boxer who lacked punching power. He was trained by Eddie Fuch after a successful amateur career. He never quite cracked the top of the professional game because of his lack of power. This was his first attempt to win the title and he executed the fight plan that Fuch designed for him that consisted of jabbing and moving side to side, then turning Napoles when he tried to charge forward and neutralizing Napoles’left hook every way possible. He came closer to winning it in this fight than in his two other shots at the welterweight title.
Napoles was one of the greatest counter punchers of all time. Lewis was physically inferior to Napoles and if he had stood in front of him and fed him leads Napoles would have knocked him out. This is a good fight to study because Lewis has a fight plan devised by Fuch and he sticks to it and applies the tactics and successfully neutralizes Napoles superior punching power through much of the fight. If you are only going to watch one round, watch the last one.
The boxing sayings that apply are “Make em miss, make em pay” and “turn them and keep them from setting.” Head movement and broken rhythm throws off the counter puncher’s timing making them alternately swing and miss or hold back the shot. The great ones could control the opponent’s punches with feints and movement, thus making the opponent look like he wasn’t trying because he could never get set and throw his punches the way he had practiced.
How do you fight a counter puncher?
1. Don’t feed them a lead & walk in
2. Use a counter jab wisely
3. Use feints and head movement
4. Control the distance with your feet
5. Turn them because ”A bull can’t charge in a circle”
