FanPost

Stephen "Breadman" Edwards' thoughts on punching power and chins

Hi, guys,

Just have read Daily Bread Mailbag and was imressed with Stephen "Breadman" Edwards' response on punching power and chins. I have learned a lot today on that subject. It's very interesting to read and so I have decided to share with all of you that publication. Enjoy the reading!


"Question: I am torn on this subject. I hear people say that you can’t teach punching power and chins. But I notice fighters doing exercises to increase their power and ability to take a punch. What’s the point if you can’t improve those areas?


Bread’s Response: I’m sorry for taking so long to answer this question, you sent it weeks ago. But I had this conversation this weekend and I thought it was appropriate to answer now.

Let’s start with punching power. Scientifically speaking the impact force or punching power equation is different variations of (velocity x mass). There are other factors but that’s the most simplistic formula. So let’s think about this. The speed in which something is launched and the mass of that object determines the force of the landing. So in a nutshell if a fighter’s fastest punch is say 35 mph. And that fighter learns to increase his speed up to 40 mph. Then in essence the fighter will punch harder. Before anyone debates this it’s fact not an opinion.

Let’s go deeper about other factors. Let’s say you drop a 20lb steel weight off of a 20 ft landing. Then you drop a 20lb plastic weight off the same 20 ft landing. The steel weight will do more damage to the ground. The reason being is because it has less give upon impact. It’s also harder and more compact. I bring this up because if you look at the best puncher in boxing, GGG. His workouts consist of neck work, wrist work, hand work and forearm work. We will talk about the neck work later. But there is reason why he strengthens his hands, forearms and wrist. As a fighter you want hard hands. You want strong forearms and wrist to lock up and not give upon impact. I will bet you a million bucks that Mackey Shilstone or any of the other leading conditioning gurus won’t repeat you can’t build or teach power….

You won’t ever be able to turn Ivan Calderon into Joe Louis. But you can increase a fighter’s speed, mass and sturdiness upon impact. So despite the myth you can increase punching power.

Next up can you teach a chin? Or in Layman’s terms can you increase a fighter’s ability to take a punch. Again the answer is yes. Again I will use GGG as example. Do you notice how much he works his neck and jaw? Do you think he’s doing that for show? When a fighter is kod it’s because his brain slammed up against the wall of his skull which causes a concussion. So if your neck and jaw is stronger and you can minimize that jarring impact, in essence you can increase your ability to take a punch.

You have to also look at few other things. Often times fighter’s like Marvin Hagler take good shots for various reasons. Obviously you can be predisposed to taking a good shot or not (genetics). But there are also other factors. Positioning and awareness are just as important. Hagler always kept his hands up, chin tucked and head centered in his shoulders. Hagler had a really strong core, neck, shoulders and back. When you are positioned correctly your entire body can absorb a punch. So it makes it easier to take. Now look at the video of Mike McCallum’s ko of Donald Curry. Curry is pulling straight back with his chin up in the air. His chin is not centered and lowered in his shoulders, his core and chest aren’t lowered and braced for impact. So McCallum gets to hit ALL chin. Curry couldn’t recover from the shot because his chin and nothing else had to absorb it.

I will go deeper. Let’s look at Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins and Andre Ward. Barrera was stopped by Junior Jones by a punch he never saw. He was too eager. Barrera was about 23 at the time. He revamped his boxing skills and became more AWARE in the ring. If we judged Barrera on that one small microcosm early in his career than we would call him chinny. He went on to have one of the more dependable chins of the 2000s.

Oscar De La Hoya was dropped hard in back to back fights early in his career. He got up to win both fights. But Oscar got stronger increased his awareness and went on to face huge punchers in his career and never had chin problems.

Bernard Hopkins is known to have one of the best chins ever. But Hopkins was dropped multiple times and hurt by a fighter named Segundo Mercado in their 1st fight. Mercado kept countering Hopkins’s right hand. Hopkins increased his awareness to an all time level. Became a smarter , stronger and more aware fighter and went on to have the most dependable chin of the last 2 decades.

Andre Ward was dropped by Darnell Boone and severely hurt by a club fighter named Kenny Kost. I can remember people calling Ward chinny. But Ward never saw either punch he was hurt with. Ward has developed into one of the most mentally sharp and focused fighters in history. He was dropped by Kovalev but he saw that punch and was able to recover quickly. Ward has also visibly increased the size of his neck. His chin is super dependable nowadays.

Boxing is a sport that thrives on primitive thinking. We repeat myths as the truths and debunk the truths as myths. The ignorance that dominates boxing is actually sad. Again I will bet you that no fighter who has been stopped or hurt will tell you that you can’t increase your ability to take a punch.

The labels of who can take a punch and who can’t is really intriguing. In my opinion there are many levels and categories. I have seen fighters like Mike Tyson who I felt could take a good punch get stopped in all of his losses. I felt Tyson could take big single shots. His problem was he came apart when he took beatings. To me that’s a lack of "toughness" not a lack of a chin.

Then you have guys like Tommy Hearns and Amir Khan who are known as chinny. But they display physical toughness. As long as you don’t hit them on the button they respond like champions and fight through punishment. Look at Khan vs Peterson and Maidana. He can take punishment you just can’t hit him clean on the kisser. Watch Hearns in Barkley 2 and his fight with Virgil Hill, same thing. Those are two guys who are tough but they just don’t take clean big shots well, the exact opposite of Mike Tyson.

Then you have guys like Naseem Hamed. Hamed was never stopped as a pro. But he took a punch funny. He wobbled, went down and just looked weird when hit. I think it was because of his positioning. His chin was up in the air, it was not centered in his shoulders and it caused some tough moments for him. Although he was never stopped I always viewed him to have a shaky chin.

Did you know that in drunk driving fatalities the person who usually lives is the drunk driver? The reason being is there body is relaxed. Guys who can take a punch well usually have 2 qualities. Relaxation and focus. Roberto Duran despite being kod by Tommy Hearns had a granite chin. He was always relaxed and aware. James Toney had the same exact traits.

For the record you can increase punching power and the ability to take a punch. Don’t let anyone convince you, you can’t".

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