So you think you can punch?

So you can punch?
I watched Anderson Silva take on Vitor Belfort at UFC 126, defending his title again with a Ko victory in the first round. Two things struck me however I will use this blog to talk about the technical flaws rather than the Psychological foundation to the match.

So you can punch? So very often the drama and the conflict of a fight causes us to forget the forest from the trees so to speak. This happens all to often while training and also in the very difficult art of reading a fight. It is easy to think you can fight or even box simply because you can throw a punch. However put in perspective although the fundamental component in fist fighting, it is most defiantly not the whole picture. Compare this to Rugby. Is Rugby fundamentally a game of grabbing a ball and running? Do you need to know how to run to be good a rugby? Would in fact even the ability to run very very much faster win you games? The answer is yes. However there will be a time, albeit depending on how amazing at running you were, when facing a complete package, that this will not be enough. In fact it may be a case of sometimes you greatest asset can become you greatest liability.

To win you need to be able to know when to run, to defend, trick, maneuver, game plan and so many more skills and attributes we need not list. More importantly, and obviously, can you win a Rugby game by NOT running or with a severe hesitation or noticeable absences of running? Almost impossible, in fact ridiculous to suggest. The injuries sustained in ruby are no joke, players are regularly concussed, cut
bruised and even paralysed. This is where the drama, the conflict the aggression and nervous energy paralyzes fighters minds and body's despite the same physical risks.

Vitor can punch, very very fast in fact.This can most defiantly win him fights, however the list of things Vitor can NOT do is much longer, and even worse his psychological profile and inability to read a fight and what is necessary to win it led him to the paralysis of being a man who's only chance of winning a fight, punching, was exactly not what he was doing. Cardinal sins in boxing: standing in front or your opponent doing nothing, waiting on them, and Anderson's understanding of when in face offs to feint and get of first, led Vitor to a humiliating defeat, and an easy win for Anderson.

The art of boxing is so very much more than the ability to throw a punch, no mater how fast technical or powerful. Vitors loss was unfortunately very obvious, I however foresaw it would take longer to get him into the washed out state we so often see him in. I believe this is a similar case to the Machida/Shogun face off, where both combatants and most Brazilians KNEW already who was the legend of Brazil, and we simply saw it play out on the big stage in more decisive fashion than the sweaty gym beatings in sparring over the last decade leading up to this.