What a great weekend of boxing we witnessed when Tyson Fury put on an absolute masterclass to outbox Deontay Wilder and become the WBC and Ring Heavyweight champion. Now I am not going to post a review of the fight, mainly as it was such a one sided bout but what I will discuss is something I read about online – that this fight was a win for the Kronk Gym and Detroit.
Some of you may already knew that early in his career Tyson Fury visited Manny Steward in the Kronk Gym where he picked up some pointers and did some sparring. Steward is of course one of the greatest boxing trainers we have ever seen, his work with Thomas Hearns is legendary and he was also well known for improving heavyweight greats such as Lennox Lewis and Wladmir Klitsckho. Fury was trained for this fight by Boxing coach Sugar Hill, the nephew of Manny Steward and it is Sugar Hill who currently runs the Kronk Gym.
In this article I have included a video below on three techniques Manny Steward trained fighters would often use, now the video does also point to a couple of other videos I have yet to write about on my blog but are available on my YouTube channel so I will also include the links for these.
The first technique we see used is the right hand is held lower than the conventional guard and under the chin as opposed to the side of the chin, this is for a couple of reasons, firstly I can catch or parry the jab much easier than if my hand is by the side of my chin, especially the counter jab, if your hand is by the side when you jab, you have an increased chance of eating a counter jab in the face than if your hand was placed under the chin. It also means your right hand is closer to the target thus reaches the target quicker than if your hand was further back at the side of the chin or higher, this allows for a more snappy back hand shot.
Secondly Manny Steward trained fighters would often utilise the pull back. The pull back is simply leaning back after a punch, usually the jab or double jab and then leaning back and coming back with after combo such as the one, two(jab, cross).
Lastly we see the stiff arm. Thomas Hearns used the stiff arm extensively and it was so effective because he had such a great jab, he would then use the stiff arm behind the jab to measure his range because he would fire up that right hand behind the stiff arm which he would place on your outside(lead) shoulder or chin to line you up for the punch he was setting you up for, mostly the right hand but sometimes also the left hook to the body.
