Jersey Joe Walcott was a former Heavyweight champion who at the time of becoming champion made history as the oldest boxer to become the Heavyweight champion, that record of course was broken decades later by Big George Foreman.

Walcott fought from 1930 to 1953 and faced many of the best names in his era, including Joe Louis whom he lost a controversial decision to, Ezzard Charles and Rocky Marciano. Walcott was known for being a smooth operator, graceful moving around the ring and being a smart fighter. Perhaps he was most known for the ‘cake walk’ an almost moonwalk around the ring which he would use to trick his opponent. In this video below we take a look at how he set up the slip and counter against Heavyweight Legend Joe Louis.

The first method we see is Walcott using the foot feint to draw a lead from Joe Louis, once Louis falls for this bait by throwing a jab, Walcott is already waiting to slip the shot and throw his right hand counter. Notice when Jersey Joe throws his right hand he takes his head off centre line just in case Louis followed up the jab with his own right hand.

The next method we see is Jersey Joe Walcott stepping backwards. Walcott is luring his opponent into a trap here, he knows by walking backwards his opponent will throw the first punch as who expects a fighter walking backwards to attack? Once Louis goes on the attack against the backwards moving fighter, Walcott slips the shot and again counters with his right hand, causing a knockdown.

The slip and counter is a common method of counter attacking and Jersey Joe Walcott was one of the best at utilising it. As a boxer you must learn to set traps and Walcott demonstrates here a couple of ways you can use the slip and counter to add to your game. The two were entirely polar opposites, the foot feint was feinting an attack to draw a lead and the walk backwards was a defensive move switching an opponent off who was not expecting the counter punch.