Apr 22, 2024, 12:35 AM (1 day ago)

to me

James - thanks for what you do. Been a long time fan of your work and looking forward to Shrouds of Aryas.

Wanted to get your take on this destroyer of a boxer named Artur Beterbiev. He holds the distinction of being the only champion with a 100% knockout ratio and recently demolished Callum Smith in their fight:

How does he generate so much power? He generates a ton of force in short-range, quite stiff looking punches but apparently he hits with the force of a sledgehammer, his opponents describe it as bone-crushing. What do you think and see?

Sir,

Thank you for reading and for sending me this video link. I am currently at a place where I can view youtube. I viewed this video and Artur's top 5 KOs.

I have not followed boxing in some time and don't know who the current top men are. My observations are:

-Artur does everything right: touch first, oblique guard, high hands, look through the hands, watch the chest, etc.

-This man is incredibly well knit, meaning pre indexed muscles, easily coordinated, not awkward or lanky, but in line.

-He makes no attempt to get around, he stays in front of his man and is focused in the pocket. This is key as he is a walk down counter puncher and does best when a longer armed man commits to a power shot.

-Artur is more intensely focused, it seems, not because he is more disciplined, but because he is a big human gunsight, his indexed posture, his strict mechanical boundaries assisting his battle game.

Those are not unique, simply excellent.

What is unique is:

-He uses a three quarter fist and vertical fist more than most fighters, is not always turning over the hand to get shoulder power into the punch. This permits him to follow up sooner from the same side with punches, and other things.

-Artur has a priority that is apparent, to touch the other man consistently. He slaps, cuffs, wing blocks, shoulder butts, shoulder checks, cross faces, even taps rather than cracks to keep his man in front, in his wheelhouse, there for the next punch. At 115 against Smith, Artur throws a double left to the body and a third up to the head. One of these first two low lefts was just a touch to bring Smith' right hand down. This is the index first mentality, which is easier to commit to when you have sick power.

-This means, the effect that he gets out of this over these very strong and well knit foes, has more than a genetic basis, but a technical source:

I bet he is gripping the floor with his toes better than his foes,

That he is clinching his fist at the optimal time a fraction of a second before impact, making it whippy and stony. Part of what could facilitate this is him not punching as fast as possible, permitting this clutch clench of the impacting fist.

-He is also using a hand triangle, with the elbows above, and in line with his wide strong hips and,

-He is not doing a Tyson and looking over his hands, but still keeping them high and to the side of his head, permitting him to drop his hands on the foe and index—this man is constantly indexing, touching as much as possible so that his man will be there for the finishing combination. He throws right leads at various angels of pronation over and around the guard. This is very odd and highly effective.

-He gives up initial power with the right hand by not grinding out maximum push pivot on the rear right foot and allowing that foot to shift up parallel to the lead foot. This is technically against boxing mechanics. This puts him in a foot to hip lower triangle, with this power transferred to the hands thru the hips to elbow-to-hand-against-head triangle, with the fists angled in being driven by the whole body. These are where the crushing blows begin, with everything knit to the rest of the body through the hips. When his elbows are out his hands are driving in, being driven by the feet. Look at his heels wing out when he chops inward with punches. Buddy McGirt, the man coaching the first victim I saw, Callum Smith, saw this and would not let the fight continue. His form in the pocket, is of a mechanical pyramid stacked on a pyramid. The inward speedbag training shown in the second video is done to support this.

A man caught in Artur's wheelhouse is going to be punished and needs freakish structural and mental strength to survive.

-The wheelhouse trap, similar to how Marvin Haggler used to shift into a right lead to catch a man rolling out leftward, is here in place with this drag-up, square stance, which is ideal for hooking. But, instead of hooking, Artur chops, which is very hard to evade. He avoids widening arm movement to take advantage of more muscle, and instead uses time and measure, often by indexing with a nothing check, drop-touch, shoulder, even his forearm to in a tactile way maintain contact with an offending glove. This guy could be very effective boxing blindfolded. The alternating knuckle to finger tip pushups shown in the second video are done to support these punch, check and punch methods.

Note how Artur, after he lets a rear right foot drag up, now has the man between his feet and chops inward, both feet turning inward. From here he sometimes jabs with the right, again indexing.

I suggest that this man has some wrestling experience, or was built for that sport. To beat him boxing, a man like the opponent above needs to forget about sitting down on his punches, and instead play a run and gun game, scoring points, worrying the eyes, maybe cutting one, and also, switching leads to escape the trap. The worst thing a foe can do against Artur is dig in for power. This guy is grinding it out and is trained and designed to win wheelhouse exchanges. A man like the one being walked down and wrecked in this video should only jab, and should shift leads thru shifting to slip outside of the opposing jaws of the closing trap.

Artur reminds me of Michael Moorer when he was a light heavyweight. Moorer was not able to hold his weight low enough to remain king of that lesser heap and moved up with some championship success. He uses less speed and more form that Moorer did. His extreme raw power enables him to punch hard with less mechanical commitment at the end of the motion and enables a continued, ever more focuses, follow up.

What a fighter.

I am so glad I am just a very minor league coach. I would hate to have to coach men set on fighting such a guard wrecker.

Thank you.