The Footwork of Napoles and Louis

[McGoorty]

This is another analytical video from LeeWyllie1, this time it is about footwork, he uses two masters of good footwork, the great Joe Louis and the fabulous Jose Napoles. In this thread I would like to discuss this aspect of boxing and martial arts in general. I would also like some input from you about other fighters footwork, who you think was great in this department and who you think was rubbish in the footwork dept. In the video he used the silly footwork of Prince Naseem Hamed ( a boxer I always thought was a bit of a joke, no doubt he could be very dangerous though ) as an example of what is not good footwork.... anyway, lets have at it.

[NChristo]

Napoles and Orlando Canizales are 2 of my favourite boxers and 1 reason is that they are actually hypnotizing too watch because of their footwork and how they move with head movement while throwing combinations, ****ing majestic.

[billeau2]

I had seen some old tapes of a young Louis, he was not a plodder to say the least. I have always maintained that his efficiency set the standard for a heavyweight puncher... Its the way he is always set up to punch and...you can see that he is already setting up the second, third punch before he is even completing the first punch.

Regarding Napoles, if you went to all the history sections on boxing boards and found all the idiots like us (cheek cheek), people who actually watch these things carefully like!! I would be willing to bet that Napoles would be on the short list for "favorite fighter" it is as Christo said, he is mesmorizing, a fighters, fighter.

When I watch guys like Louis and Napoles I almost feel as though cutting the ring down is unnecessary. When you watch this level of expertise Napoles and Louis display they are always ready to throw a punch, they never even need to move into position to go on offense, your always on offense. Louis was a king at using 15 rounds to stalk and make sure at least a few opportunities would exist to light the other fellow up.

[McGoorty]

I had seen some old tapes of a young Louis, he was not a plodder to say the least. I have always maintained that his efficiency set the standard for a heavyweight puncher... Its the way he is always set up to punch and...you can see that he is already setting up the second, third punch before he is even completing the first punch.

Regarding Napoles, if you went to all the history sections on boxing boards and found all the idiots like us (cheek cheek), people who actually watch these things carefully like!! I would be willing to bet that Napoles would be on the short list for "favorite fighter" it is as Christo said, he is mesmorizing, a fighters, fighter.

When I watch guys like Louis and Napoles I almost feel as though cutting the ring down is unnecessary. When you watch this level of expertise Napoles and Louis display they are always ready to throw a punch, they never even need to move into position to go on offense, your always on offense. Louis was a king at using 15 rounds to stalk and make sure at least a few opportunities would exist to light the other fellow up.

The only time, in Louis's prime when he looked vulnerable was the 1941 fight against the highly underrated Billy Conn, the problem for Joe was here was a guy who was so fast he made Joe look slow, but Joe wasn't slow at all, he threw punches very fast for a guy who was also throwing a massive amount of power behind him, Conn was simply a genius and was as I said incredibly fast for even a light heavyweight, maybe the fastest light heavyweight there ever was, a dream fight that would have been fantastic and highly interesting would be Billy Conn vs Roy Jones jr, roy I feel had many Conn qualities, but back to Louis now. Many fans of Tyson would talk about the ferocity of Tyson's punching but he was very like Dempsey in that regard but Louis threw punches so furiously, so savagely and explosively he also was the most clinical puncher the heavyweight division ever had, there have been harder punchers than Joe, Marciano and Foreman and Shavers hit harder but Joe was the most accurate and therefore just as effective as those blokes. It was Joe's footwork that made all this possible, you have to be in the position to hit like he did, not just occasionally but the feet have to be in that position nearly all of the time to be that successful, Louis was one of a kind, he was the personification of boxing greatness.

[IronDanHamza]

Napoles is possibly the smoothest fighter I've ever seen.

Insane talent.

[rightsideup]

Napoles is possibly the smoothest fighter I've ever seen.

Insane talent.

I have read that robinson saw Jose in his prime and was extremely impressed

[McGoorty]

Napoles is possibly the smoothest fighter I've ever seen.

Insane talent.

Yeah he was amazing in my opinion too, I don't know where to rate him,,, there are just too many awesome greats in that division, I believe it has the most depth in history than any other division although the Lightweight division is close too. I will venture out and suggest that I think he beats Mayweather 5 times out of six and that Floyd never fought anyone in his life the equal of Napoles.

[JimEarl]

Don't be sleepin' on Mantequilla. The Cuban must have a spot in my top 10 at 147 as deep as that division is.

Adrian Broner seems someone to me to have poor stance and footwork.

[joeandthebums]

I have read that robinson saw Jose in his prime and was extremely impressed

You don't by any chance remember where you came across that do you?

[Marcello]

Louis's footwork is always underrated. People look at the Conn fight and think that's it. That was only one night. Plenty of fighters tried that and Louis had no problem catching them and cutting off the ring. He was actually a fleet footed boxer before he realized he could knock everybody out.