Things To Learn From Berto/Ortiz

[greynotsoold]

While it was a pretty exciting fight and fun to watch, this fight was not fought at the highest skill level. Far from it. In fact, I bet guys like Randy Shields and Pete Ranzany, if they watched that "world championship" fight last night, are very bitter men this morning. So, if you are boxing, or contemplating boxing, here are some things to keep in mind about what you saw last night.
First, keeping your feet too far apart is a bad idea. Both fighters were guilty of this and affected them in different ways. When your feet are that wide apart, you can't move; your first step always has to be straight back, to get your feet to a place where you can change direction. This allowed Ortiz to get right on top of Berto repeatedly, because Berto couldn't move away and because he couldn't counter effectively (specifically, quickly enough). On his part, Ortiz was limited in his ability to throw combinations, using both hands. Watch his left hand, and how often he is pawing and waving with it. Also, he reaches with it, gets offbalance, then brings his left foot forward, squaring up. This led to the 2nd rd knockdown and that counter was there all night.
Second, learn to punch moving away from your lead hand.(e.g. an orthodox fighter moving to his right, a southpaw moving to his left) Ortiz moves very strongly behind his right foot, which allowed Berto to escape by moving to his right. It would have benefited Ortiz to be able to slide over and cut off the ring. But Berto only moved that way; he didn't fight that way, with one exception being the other knockdown he scored, and the two or three other times he just missed that same right hand. I believe that the lack of this ability cost, or may have cost, Berto the fight.
This is why: The way that Ortiz fights lends itself to him taking a horrible beating at some point, based on the two things I mentioned above; the way he advances his right foot (leaving his feet so far apart) and the way he pushes that left hand as a result. The move is very simple: slide your left foot (as an orthodox fighter) a few inches to the right (the distance is determined by how far you intend to pivot in that direction), then pivot to your right. This takes advantage of both of the things that Ortiz does over and over again. You can counter his slow, wide left hand with left hooks (even his own corner told Ortiz that he was throwing a slow, weak left hand), or, when he turns to follow you, which, again, he did all night, he's right there for right hands.
Keep this in mind if you find that you get hit too much in sparring: it is impossible to be a good defensive fighter with your feet too far apart. Look in the mirror when you shadow box and work on this. Charley Goldman, an accomplished bantam in his own right, and the trainer that did wonders with Marciano, said that, when Marciano moved up to fight top level guys, and his defense needed to improve, the most important thing he did was shorten his stance. And it made him a more effective in-fighter as well, by shortening his punches.

[Andre]

Excellent stuff as usual.