Chris Eubank talks about how martial arts helped him, Doctor is his teacher.
Doctor (Walter Jonson) had an expansive knowledge of internal and external martial art forms such as aikida, jiu-jitsu, karate, tai chi, and chinese boxing, and at first it was very frustratinfg. For example, martial arts like pa-qua are open handed, but obviously boxing uses a closed fist. Doctor's martial arts were about holding, strking with your palm and fingers, whereas boxing was about striking only with your knuckles. He was trying to teach me these forms, but because i liked him so much i couldn't tell him that i was struggling to incoporate them into boxing. This went on for perhaps three years.
What i did extract from everything I observed about martial arts was the footmovement, which was all about positioning and escape. The stance and poise in martial arts is 98% on your backfoot and 2% on your front. Boxing is 50/50, unless you go into a position to strike, at which point you vary the weight distribution. I took that and spliced into my boxing style. People often ask me how the martial arts and boxing mix. The point is this: boxing is actually the highest form of martial arts, because you have to learn to absorb punishement before you can initiate it.
Another aspect Doctor brought to my game was strecthing. Obviously, was a boxer, flexibilty is vital, but many fighters only have flexibility in one dimension, namely that of the direction of the punch. So another aspect I took from the martial arts was to develop all-encompasing flexibilitym or amplitude, and that i mean agility in every direction.
For example i learned how to od the japenese splits, which is where your legs are completely flat, then you roll your abdomen and chest forward. This is an excruiating skill to develop and can only be achieved by constant repetition.
These extraordinery skills, when taken into the ring proved to be very powerful tools.
Chris Eubank
There's like 2 pages left where he talks about the philosophy that is boxing and the martial arts etc etc....atm, i cant be bothered to type anymore.
I might type it up another time, ciao
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