Angles, hand speed, reflexes, foot work; we fetishize these things in boxing. They have the allure of the uncommon. But they’re not uncommon in the ring. “Slow” is a speed. Shifting weight back-to-front is something you learn in kindergarten gym class. And “he uses angles” could mean just about anything, geometrically speaking. Why do we do it, then? To end debate, to intimidate laymen.
But you know what actually works in a boxing ring? Jab-cross. Left-right. Force = Mass x Acceleration.
Evidence of this came in Dusseldorf, Germany, last weekend when Ukrainian heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko beat on American Eddie Chambers for 11 rounds then rendered him unconscious in the 12th.
More evidence will come this weekend when Germany’s Arthur Abraham fights American Andre Dirrell in Detroit’s Joe Luis Arena – the first Group Stage 2 match of Showtime’s “Super Six World Boxing Classic.”
An appeal to fundamentals brings us towards a topic treated in Michael Lewis’ “Moneyball” – a book about baseball you can enjoy even if you don’t enjoy baseball. Major league scouts for years preferred the magic of tools like arm strength and bat speed to answering baseball’s fundamental offensive question: “Does he get on base?” Anyone can look at stats and answer that question, but the scouts figured it was their eye for talent one needed to see the attributes of a special prospect.
Boxing has many such scouts. They love things they can’t see, like flurried combinations and angles. They find a kid who has these attributes and allow him to reinvent the sport a little. You don’t want to obscure your view with high hands? No problem, kid, you’re so fast they can’t touch you! You don’t want to settle down, stay in one stance, and punch? Go ahead and switch it up, kid, they’ll never figure you out!
You get the sense something like this might have happened with Andre Dirrell, who calls himself “The Matrix” and who, despite being the most physically gifted fighter in the Super Six, will likely be eliminated from the tourney Saturday. He’s been allowed – maybe encouraged – to eschew boxing fundamentals for a fruit salad of natural movements that showcase his reflexes.
His October loss to Carl Froch was a mess. Much of the blame for that belongs to Froch, a man who really wants to fight even if, at times, it looks like he might not know how. Dirrell’s constant stance switching – dare we use “Matrix” as a verb? – helped nothing, though. Dirrell showed up in Froch’s hometown and turned a prizefight into an athletic fashion show. It was Dirrell’s fight to lose, and that’s exactly what he did. But has anyone told him yet?
We see this in the gyms before boys become men. There’s the stand-out amateur with all the talent who’s allowed to build confidence at his lessers’ expense. These lesser kids don headgear and make a go of it, and often grow to make good trainers. They rarely hang with the junior superstar. That job goes to the kids who are in the gym – hats cocked to the side, dress code just right – working combinations on an imaginary bag and never wrapping their hands. Tomorrow’s hangers-on.
Has too much time around the hangers-on compromised Dirrell? He seems to have a good mind for the sport. He beat Froch pretty convincingly in the minutes he fought. Showtime’s “Fight Camp 360” program shows Dirrell determining quite quickly that Arthur Abraham uses a “hit me till you’re done then let me hit you” defense. Dirrell said the solution aloud. But will he use it?
Sometimes even having the solution and using it isn’t enough. Ask “Fast” Eddie Chambers. Slip Wladimir Klitschko’s extended left glove and leap underneath with a body shot. That was the blueprint. Chambers flew to Germany in good shape and tried to follow the plan. Then physics intervened.
At this point as Americans, it’s safe to put our hope away. Chambers really was our last best chance. He had the temperament and character a 209-pound man needs against one who weighs 245. But Klitschko’s mastery of trainer Manny Steward’s style is finally here, and so we can stop talking about angles and hand speed and the rest of that jazz. If you’re not big as Wlad, you’re not going to beat Wlad.
Why not? Saturday showed us when Chambers’ shoulders fit within the width of Klitschko’s chest. To slip Klitschko’s jab properly – to the outside – required too much motion on Chambers’ part. To get outside Klitschko’s jab, never mind his hook, Chambers had to go a meter or two away from Klitschko’s chin. Since Chambers is a fighter, that wouldn’t do.
Now you’re slipping Klitschko’s jab to the inside. You’re putting your head in the direct line of Klitschko’s right cross. You can block that punch, but know this: So long as Wladimir Klitschko’s right cross is regularly colliding with any part of your body, you will not remain conscious for 36 minutes. Chambers came awfully close. Then at 35:55, he tipped head-first into the ropes, ruined from the exhaustion and profound unpleasantness of being struck by a giant who knows how.
Chambers didn’t lose to Klitschko so much as physics itself.
And so will Andre Dirrell if he tries to Matrix his way past Arthur Abraham, a man who’s slighter than Klitschko but also knows how to punch. Abraham can be outworked. It hasn’t happened yet. So, in order to outwork him Dirrell will have to pick a stance and stay with it. He’ll need to leverage punches correctly and hurt the man across from him. Until he has Abraham’s respect, he’ll be merely an 0-1 contender in a tournament Abraham currently owns.
But he’ll also be a crowd favorite fighting only 50 miles from home. A little adherence to boxing’s millennia-old common wisdom could go a long way. It could at least make the fight interesting.
Bart Barry can be reached via Twitter.com/bartbarry
