Shoulder Rolling

[Chris Nagel]

There is no beauty to it Chris,its not only off balance the jab wont have an ounce of power,and every shot from the left will be telegraphed
There's a reason nobody fights from that stance anymore

His balance is fine, and with a slight twist of his hips shoulder he'd hit you a hard jab too. A lot of fighters make the mistake of putting their weight on their front leg (or bad posture to begin with) when trying to reach, this often puts them off balance and susceptable to counters. I assure you, he was not hindered in anyway besides the fact that he had bad hands.

Yeah, there's a reason why nobody fights in that stance anymore, it's all because no body teaches it anymore. If Charlie Burley, Benny Leonard and the like fought the way that a lot of guys fight today they would have had short and obscure careers.

Look at his Head and where it is, its perfect to make the rest of the body move without moving itself. Perfect Oral Stability

His head is out of the way, and not tucked forward and into his breast bone. He got a good view of the action, and could move with grace. With his head being back where it is, he's hard to hit with a jab.


Reply to Canary: He's not going to just stand there so you could hit him, and his defense isn't at all as flawed as you think. His left arm wasn't dangling at his side, it was in a good position to jab from, and he could bring it back to protect body if the need arose. His right hand guarded his solar-plexus, and no matter what kind of looping/left hook that you could throw at him it probably wouldn't get through unless you had a very clever set up. His narrow stance, slight crouch and lean increased distance. Add the rising jab that his lowered hands entitled, along with circling and he could control distance. Standing at a slant to his opponent leaning slightly to the right (away from the opponent's right hand) he could easily slip, and shoulder roll with impunity.

Circling right, offering non-commital jabs, while under this stance he forced his opponents to fight his fight. you're pretty much limited to throwing ineffective jabs at him, and reaching with the right hand.

shoulder roll comes in two. one was going along with the punch to lessen its impact or to avoid getting hit by that punch, the other was working your way besides and under the punches and jabs while closing the gap for your offensives. tyson and dempsey were masters of this. joe frazier and rocky marciano were honorable mentions. moving in while ducking punches and throwing killer uppers and hooks when the gap is closed. again, you cant possible pull-off the offense-oriented shoulder roll with youre body and head wide open.

You're confusing the shoulder roll with rolling with a punch. It's more than avoiding a punch as you are pushing their right hand to the side with your shoulder (kind of like a parry), you don't use it to lessen the impact of punch either. If you get hit with a right hand on your cheek and roll with it to lessen the impact, then you're rolling with the punch which is different to shoulder rolling. You can't shoulder roll while standing square, with your hands high, Loughran's stance helps draw an opponent's right hand which is essential to shoulder rolling. Make them commit to a particular punch and then good luck.