Countering Jab Strategy

Training
1

As the title says, for the more “wiser” folks here what are you strategy / tactics you can use to really make someone hesitant to throw their jab.
For ex I know of a lot of studies on Mayweather vs Guerrero, Floyd kept active touching Guerrero lead arm and really make it difficult for him to throw his jab at his own will.

Now what about same stance vs same stance? I tried it in sparring and it seems to cross me up.

I’m not looking for slips,parry/catches…more of a strategical so in other words when you know who you’re sparring and you KNOW he has a good jab what is your go to gameplan?

If no one has any sound advice do you remember any particular fights where someones jab was countered at will?

Thanks in advance

2

[quote]shs101 wrote:
As the title says, for the more “wiser” folks here what are you strategy / tactics you can use to really make someone hesitant to throw their jab.
For ex I know of a lot of studies on Mayweather vs Guerrero, Floyd kept active touching Guerrero lead arm and really make it difficult for him to throw his jab at his own will.

Now what about same stance vs same stance? I tried it in sparring and it seems to cross me up.

I’m not looking for slips,parry/catches…more of a strategical so in other words when you know who you’re sparring and you KNOW he has a good jab what is your go to gameplan?

If no one has any sound advice do you remember any particular fights where someones jab was countered at will?

Thanks in advance[/quote]

Yes, tapping the lead hand only works for a southpaw.

So if he has a good jab, there are plenty of things you can do to negate that. First, you have to be determine your strengths and hopefully you will have an idea of your opponents weaknesses. A great way I try to fight a guy that has a good jab is to close the distance and fight at a closer range using angles and footwork. With a jab, they tend to fight long and many times they favor straight punches. Their power will also be at the end of these punches. So try to get inside of their range and get them uncomfortable and use hooks and uppercuts.

Counterpunching is key versus a good jabber. Nothing is worse then when you see a guy when just blocks, parries, covers up, or slips the jab on the outside while doing nothing. His opponent walks continues to jab him and then 1 or 2 start landing eventually. He doing all this defense, his opponent is gaining confidence, and the other guy is doing nothing! And most importantly: Your opponent is getting a read on your rhythm and your reaction to punches! Then he feints, and hits you hard with a right hand. So, make him miss and then make him pay. A safe counter is catching his jab and firing your own jab. Or try to slip and then land the right hand. Or slip inside and a hard right hand to the heart. But one hard counter right hand can make all the difference in the world.

Next thing: Stance. If your opponent has a real fast jab that you are having trouble picking up, cheat by manipulating your guard a little. Take your right glove and instead of holding it near your jaw-line, bring it almost in front of your chin. This way you can catch the jab without moving your glove. **BUT if he is smart, he will pick up of this and try to hook off the jab. Or he will feint the jab and throw the hook to the open side of your head. Make sure to quickly move the glove to catch the hook to your right side.

There are many more ways, but I figured I would give it a start.

Maybe tell a bit more about your fighting style.

3

I teach something called AJS or active jab system . Basically it involves you using your jab for offense and defense. You can use your jab to stop their jab.you can also use it to set up your jabs.

at our gym, we teach to defend the jab with jab and with the rear hand. Without writing an essay. Use your jab to intercept his jab.

Andre touches on it here, and here is another video that demonstrates what he is talking about:

good luck.

4
  1. Take control of the fight/“Set Point Control”- while countering a jab can be a good thing, you are still reacting to the opponent’s actions and since action is always faster than reaction you will always be at a slight timing disadvantage. A good fighter who knows how to adjust will beat your counters or exploit them. You are also allowing your opponent to dictate the terms of the fight (when and where it occurs).

Instead, you want to take back control of the fight and force your opponent to react to you, not the other way around. In other words, don’t let them get off first if you can help it. You do this by denying your opponent the ability to gain the distance and angulation that they need in order to be able to launch their offense (jab in this case). Every time they try to get to that point you either back up, move laterally (or pivot), hit them, or fake and then either move or hit them.

Once you are in control again, then you can much more effectively utilize countering, faking/broken rhythm , or misdirection types of tactics depending on their defensive habits.

  1. Don’t let them jab, make them jab- along the same lines, if you cannot get back control of the set point, then at least force them to throw when you want them to.

Often guys who like to jab a lot use it as both a lead off tactic and as a method of maintaining distance. So aggressively fake your way to just outside of their reach so that their jab falls short and then come in “the back door”/hit them as they are mentally and physically recovering using defensive timing. You need to work on starting your counter (regardless of whether you want to lead with a jab or lead hook (personally I find that trying to lead with the right doesn’t generally work out all that well in this scenario as you are still outside of arms reach, quite possibly further if they have a longer reach than you) at the point in time where your opponent’s punch would have made contact with you. If you wait until they are pulling the hand back to start your counter you will be late and they will either be out of range or back on guard and able to defend your counter.

Once you have hit them a few times as their jab misses they will start to hesitate to throw it, really run while throwing it half heartedly, meaning that even if it did land it won’t have much on it (also allowing you to cut off the ring and walk then into a corner), get them to abandon throwing it altogether and instead try to defend/counter your attacks, cause them to not react at all or wait to react to your fakes until later (which can allow a good broken rhythm attack to land or allow you to jam your way into close range to start “trench fighting” them), or cause them to start controlling the set point better and breaking down your defenses (which is why strategy 1 is generally still superior).

  1. Work your way in with lots of evasive head and body movement and angular footwork- Frazier and young Tyson are good examples of this type of strategy for reducing the effectiveness of the jab. You must try to keep your head at or below your opponent’s shoulders while doing this at all times (although it should still be constantly changing position laterally and/or vertically to make it hard to hit cleanly), you have to be in constant motion, you need to be willing to take a few glancing blow to get in and start dropping bombs (generally this type of fighting requires that you be good at inside punching [hooks, uppercuts, etc…]), and be in great shape.

Constantly pressuring your opponent like this generally will also start to wear them down mentally and physically, which again is why you need to be in great shape to utilize it effectively. It’s more of a “win by attrition” strategy than the other two, but it can still work in the right fighters hands.

Hope you found some of this helpful.

5

I agree with a lot of what Sento said.

With a jab, you can either do two things: catch it, or make it miss. Otherwise it’s going to hit you. So if you don’t want to catch it, you’re going to have to slip it, and the best way to convince a guy not to throw it is make him hurt every time.

It’s hard for me to give you a stance-vs-stance breakdown, since I’m a southpaw and usually moving with righties. But that being said, there’s a lot of ways for me to counter it: outside slip/throw the overhand 2, outside slip hook body/hook head, inside slip 2 body or 2 head, etc. If you’re talking footwork wise, my key is going to be keeping my right foot outside your left, which, if I do it effectively, is going to nullify a lot of your punching power.

For you though, Sento is right, the best idea if probably going to be a combination of feints and footwork. You want to get his mind off of thinking about throwing that jab, and onto wondering just exactly what you’re planning. That can be accomplished by anticipating the jab and feinting down like you’re going to go to his body - see how he reacts. Do it a few times. Watch what hand drops, what he closes off, then hit him there.

Another one is the Mayweather binoculars-type one - keep those gloves up and around your eyes, and just totally nullify him scoring ANY sort of points with his jab. As I think Donny said in the other thread, May has a talent for totally taking away your main weapon, and forcing you to do shit you don’t want to do. Do that to the other guy - take away that jab as a scoring punch, and make him drop down and jab to the body instead. Then you know where he’s going, and you can place your counter punches in anticipation. If your timing is good, you can catch him here.

Another is to keep your lead hand out a little bit and try to “smother” it. It’s kind of similar to what Mayweather did to Guerrero, just not as easy because you’re fighting another righty instead of a lefty. You’ll see Marquez do this a lot - keep his left hand up and bobbing in front of his face - and it tends to take away the ability to get a clean jab in on him. This works well if you’ve got fast hands and can catch his and shoot yours over the top in the same motion (I can’t, but maybe you can) or you can throw a lead right just after contact.

Also, as Sento said, maintaining control of the distance is going to be of crucial importance. The jab is only effective in scoring from a certain range - too close or too far, and it’s just another miss. So if you’re an infighter, work those slips to get inside and stay in the pocket with him, and if you’re a distance fighter, use feints and draws to get him to throw it when you want, so at least you know where it’s going to be and can counter effectively.

6

I am not going to attempt to improve on Sento’s or Irish’s posts.

I will say that I feel like this thread is restoring a bit of “balance to the force” compared to the bizzaro world one.

Regards,

Robert A