Alien?

Bernard Hopkins won a title fight at 48 and in the interview clip below he rails against the idea that it's because he's a freak, or as he puts it, an 'alien'. He suggests that pay per view ratings demand spectacle and that in the eyes of the promoters this means fighters taking hits and hitting back with no concern for their health or their longevity in the game. It's a shame. They call boxing the 'sweet science' - Science, not the Spectacle. Where did that get lost?

Here's Steve Morris talking about the same thing:

"Fighting is about hitting without being hit whilst training is about learning how to be able to realistically do that without suffering long term brain or physical damage . The trouble is a lot of the professional fighters i was once associated with were all too willing to take a beating in the ring , arena or during sparring in order to give one. Like i said seriously dumb ....."

And :

"None of the professional mma fighters ive taught over the past ten years on a casual basis (maximum once a month) were ever interested in that mind set, attributes, skills or those concepts and principles that would allow them to increase their chances of taking someone out on the feet or the ground whilst reducing the chances of being taken out in turn. The only thing they were ever interested in was taking the other guy out. The trouble is with such a primitive approach to the fight and training many of them were losing more fights than they were winning they just couldnt seem to be able to get past the oversimplified strategic and tactical objectives and formulated skilled patterns their more regular trainers were spoon feeding them on daily basis. Theres far more to the art and science of fighting than the daily repetition of some prescribed movement pattern or trying to beat each others brains out during sparring ..."

It's not a view you hear that often, but recently seems to be being said out loud more often. It's close to my heart because it is also what Sonny thought and taught. It is also what my book is about. I have written about it here many times and perhaps the zeitgeist is coming right for it to finally, actually be heard.

If I was to guess why most do not train the 'not getting hit' part, it's because they don't know how to do it. 

Well, I'm telling you, there are ways to, you just have to have better skills and be motivated to learn them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytzoaCcT974