Over the weekend I uploaded on to YouTube a video on Sugar Ray Robinson and the inside slip. Now by chance later in the night when Alexander Povetkin fought Dillian Whyte, the heavyweight pulled off a stunning move to end the fight. The move was the inside slip followed by the lead uppercut which knocked out Whyte in five.
A fighter who was extremely adept using the inside slip to counter was Sugar Ray Robinson. Generally in boxing we are advised to slip to the outside of punches, mostly because by slipping to the inside you might run into the power hand of your opponent so slipping to the outside is safer. For example if I slip a jab to the inside of an orthodox fighter the opponent may throw a right hand and I have slipped into the power shot – of course there are other tricks I have discussed on this site which help here such as Archie Moore’s old school trick known as the pin where he would pin your arm as he slipped inside but generally by slipping to the outside you stay out of harms way incase the right hand comes after.
Sugar Ray Robinson though was often favouring the inside slip, possibly because he had such a great left hand and he was such a great offensive fighter that he always wanted to be in position to attack his opponent as opposed to slipping outside where the options to attack don’t have the same versatility.
Robinson would use the inside slip either off his own jab to then come in with the left hook to the body or head(sometimes he would do both, slip inside the opponents jab and counter with the left hook to the body and head) or he could use the inside slip off his own jab to set up the left hook to the body and/or head. Now off the inside slip Robinson could then begin to feign the left hook to the body and instead come round with the right hook and whip that into the body. When Robinson would throw the right hook to the body he would dip his left shoulder the same way he would dip it when slipping to the inside – so the opponent would think the left hook to the body or head is coming but instead Robinson would go the other way to the body with his right hook.
From there we can also see that after the jab, inside slip and right hook to the body, Robinson would switch levels and come with the left hook to the head – he is really causing a lot of indecision in his opponents mind and becoming unpredictable and that will lead to a higher success rate landing his punches. One of my favourite jabs is the screw jab which you can throw off the inside slip whether it is a counter to your opponents jab or off your own jab(jab, inside slip, screw jab). Watch the video below on how Sugar Ray Robinson would pull off the inside slip.
