FanPost

Silence in the Storm

There is no more isolated place in sports than the centre of the boxing ring. Your corner, your family, the referee; none of them can save you from the most dangerous place in sport.

"Protect yourself at all times," is something we hear before every fight. It is so often uttered that it can become neglected in its importance. It becomes part of the background noise of fight night. It remains the most important phrase that will ever be said.

I thought, briefly, of making a long tortured metaphor out of it. I would talk about how fighters have to protect themselves from the punches of their opponents and the financial vampires at all times. That idea seemed both tired and supremely lame.

Instead, while writing my preview of Kovalev's return to the ring, I thought about Andre Ward. I spoke in the piece about Ward winning two controversial fights against Kovalev, and feel that I somehow disrespected the man. To be clear, I have no special attachment to Ward as a fighter or a person. I don't find him particularly interesting as a personality. Until recently, I never understood how this man came to ascend the mythical pound for pound lists.

Most of the stars in this sport have something. They have one absolutely overwhelming trait that allows them to fly through the ranks, and become a champion. Power, speed, footwork, boxing acumen, any of those could be honed into a weapon to which the world of boxing becomes victim. The Vasyl Lomachenko's of the world are blessed with several natural gifts that give them the opportunity to become great. The Andre Ward's of the world are gifted a different kind of ability, the kind that becomes necessary in boxing when you are without ethereal talent.

We all know the story. Ward has not lost since he was 13 years old. Amazing, simply sublime. I hope I never hear that fucking story again.

I'm much more interested in how he does it. Forgetting for a moment the controversy of the Kovalev fights, Ward's success came from something that can be hard to notice. It isn't quite timing. Plenty of fighters have great timing. Ward has an ability to break free from the normal timing mechanisms we see in the ring.

Fighters are told to never fall into a pattern, which is stupid. Pattern is inevitable. Whether it is in the way you bounce around, or how you move when you're going one direction, there will always be patterns. Ward, like few fighters I can think of, was able to find these patterns and expose them. Against Kovalev, Ward would sense when Kovalev was going to do something, and short circuit that with a slicing shot to the face. Not with brilliant power or speed; he doesn't possess those things. He would simply read the patterns. When this began discouraging Kovalev, Ward would fill the discouraged break in action with another shot. The pattern would again be broken.

Ward then broke the Krusher with a few low blows that sapped the monster of his strength and will. Some things are more noticeable than others.

Guillermo Rigondeaux, the most technically perfect boxer in the sport today, does this. He does it by moving in ways that no one understands. Ghost punches (a Cuban National Program staple), subtle defensive postures, and atomic level power keep his opponents from doing the things they want. They have to then follow and read his pattern, which is impossible for the remedial level opponents Rigondeaux has had in front of him. Even Nonito Donaire was at a loss to find the answers for Rigondeaux's movements.

Breaking the unspoken rhythm of a fight is one way to find silence in the heart of the storm that is a boxing ring. A commenter pointed out on a previous post of mine that boxing is like an exorcism. The sanctioned violence in the ring is an escape from the violence of the real world, and the release of conquering a man's violence with your own can chase the demons away, for a time.

Ward sufficiently exorcised the demons of his hard youth. He is 33, retired (for now) and enjoying the fruits of a successful prizefighting career. Rigondeaux is a few weeks out from what will be the most challenging fight of his career, against a man in Vasyl Lomachenko with the kind of natural advantages that you would gift a video game character. He has yet been able to exorcise the past, his defection from Cuba and his struggle to get big money fights among them.

Lomachenko does not have patterns, at least that I can observe. Maybe Rigondeaux can see them. Maybe if Ward could whittle himself down to 130, he could. Maybe a fighter I have not yet seen is coming up and has that same ability.

Who knows? Protect yourselves at all times, friends. It's dangerous out there.

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