Counter Jabbing Feat. Joe Louis [Jack Slack]

From HeadKickLegend - head there to read the full article, including Nogueira, BJ Penn and Jose Aldo.

The Counter Jab is perhaps the most important punch in boxing and therefore in all around striking, it lands cleanly and often, and it is by far the safest counter punch to throw. Supposedly good strikers have been taken apart time and again by lesser strikers who counter jab often and accurately. There are many variations of the counter jab, but by far the most useful are the catch and pitch, and the dipping jab. The catch and pitch jab is a simple matter of using the right palm to catch an incoming jab while firing one's own jab simultaneously. The dipping jab is the act of slipping to the outside of the opponent's jab while simultaneously throwing one's own.

The former technique of catch and pitch is demonstrated here by the great Joe Louis

Notice how Louis initiates his jab immediately upon his opponent's front foot entering punching range. Louis was not a fast mover, and it really showed as most of his opponents spent the early rounds running in and out of range, so it was these kind of well timed pot shots at long range that Louis used to slow them down before stepping into range for his violent hooking and uppercutting combinations. Watch in this gif as he grinds down Mann, a fighter who had begun the fight by attempting to rush Louis. Louis brought Mann under his control with a counter jab every time Mann attempted to fight from long range.

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Jack Slack blogs at http://fightsgoneby.blogspot.com/

And tweets at @JackSlackMMA