Expert: Jack Rose - 2/8/2011

Question
Hi, this saturday I'm gonna have my second amateur-bout, so I'm pretty new to the sport but I trained hard over the last 19 months. Besides that I'm extremely nervous, I got another problem: I'm 1,90 meters tall (think it's about 6,2 feet) and copete in middleweight (<75 kg) therefore i don't got a stature to bang it out, but pretty long arms. So it's pretty self-explaining that my opponents are allways trying to rush towards me, hard pressure etc. What do i got to do, if my legs can't keep up with allways boxing while stepping back??

Answer
Dimitrij,

keep in mind, you don't want to go step back, you want to move to the side. Lateral movement is key. Keep him at the end of your jab and as soon as he gets inside of your reach, that's when you move to the side.
He will manage to get inside from time to time, when he does you throw a quick 2 or 3 punch combination and then slide out to the side, never back out!  Always move out to the side. Your goal is to never let him get his feet set because that is where you will feel his power, when he has leverage. Keep him turning and off balance with lateral movement.

Your jab should stay busy from the outside and every time he takes a step forward you fire off the righthand...then move to the side and do the same thing all night. You don't need to run around the ring, you just need to change your position laterally, often, never letting him get set. Throw first, don't counterpunch or you'll be backing up all night.

Work on this in the ring either by yourself or with a sparring partner or both. You need to plant this strategy inside your head so it's second nature.

good luck