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<\/p>\nThe crack when the punch landed sounded like a whip, splitting the air and bringing gasps from the crowd inside a ballroom at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Miguel Carrizoza had just stood up after being floored by a right hook and still looked unsteady on his feet. The clock had not even reached 30 seconds of the opening round, but then it came. The Ryan Garcia left hook.<\/p>\n
Crack.<\/p>\n
Carrizoza would not beat the count the second time.<\/p>\n
Garcia had been building his reputation as a feisty puncher down at super featherweight. But it was this moment, delivered on the eve of a huge clash between Saul \u2018Canelo\u2019 Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas in September 2017, that sealed his status as a potential star.<\/p>\n
And while some of boxing\u2019s greats have had superb lead hooks \u2014 think Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Sugar Ray Robinson, Roy Jones Jr and Roberto Duran, to name just a few \u2014 Garcia\u2019s is up there with the best of them.<\/p>\n
The Athletic examines what makes this type of punch special and why Garcia, who defends his WBC welterweight title against Conor Benn this weekend, is equipped with one of the most potent weapons in the sport.<\/p>\n
The lead hook has long been a great weapon in a fighter\u2019s arsenal, whether it be a left hook from an orthodox fighter or a right from a southpaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe left hook is short but sweet,\u201d Freddie Roach, the Hall of Fame trainer, tells The Athletic. \u201cThe beauty of it is in its simplicity. A left hook is the closest punch thrown to the chin or jaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shorter the distance, the more powerful the punch. If it\u2019s thrown correctly, using the proper combination of speed, power, and distance, the fighter getting clipped will never know it\u2019s coming until it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach has trained a few boxers with great lead hooks. Miguel Cotto and Pacquiao, who had a fearsome lead hook from the southpaw stance, are two of them. Like any skill, it can be worked on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to work on it to perfect it with Manny and with Miguel,\u201d said Roach. \u201cBesides being great talents, both were excellent students who were eager to learn and improve. They were two of the hardest workers I ever trained.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo perfect the hook, I prioritised sparring because the boxer is working under fight-night conditions. Of course, the lesson is taught by hitting the pads repeatedly so that it becomes automatic and effective, but it\u2019s during sparring where I can observe if he is throwing it correctly and I can make the corrections in real time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen, right after the sparring is done, we can work on improvements, one-on-one, in the ring while everything is still fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach believes the perfect lead hook comes down to the timing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all in the execution,\u201d he adds. \u201cYou need to find the right distance, maybe four inches, the timing has to be precise, and then throw (the punch) as quickly as possible to take advantage of catching him by surprise before he can see it coming over his hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are variations of lead hooks, and while Garcia\u2019s left hook is not perfect, it is certainly explosive and devastatingly effective.<\/p>\n
Frazier was brilliant at throwing it from what would seem the soles of his boots. The American heavyweight would dip down as he weaved out of the way of punches and throw the hook as he rose, with the full force coming up from his legs.<\/p>\n
Robinson delivered his from a straight-up stance, producing something sharp and with less body movement. Floyd Mayweather Jr had a superb \u2018check hook\u2019 with his left. The one he landed on Ricky Hatton in their December 2007 meeting was picture-perfect.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Garcia strikes Javier Fortuna in their July 2022 bout (John McCoy\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s comes from standing up straight in his orthodox stance but is driven by his back leg, which propels him forward.<\/p>\n
From there, it is the twisting of the hips and the swivel on the front leg that generates the torque for the 28-year-old American to detonate an explosive shot.<\/p>\n
The speed of the hook is what catches out his opponents. Sometimes it comes with the slightest of jumps forward, which can surprise them and cause them to pull back, leaving their chin exposed for the hook to land. Other times, his feet are more planted but the hook\u2019s power is generated from the arc of the punch being wider. A perfect example of that is his first-round knockout of Francisco Fonseca in February 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cGarcia\u2019s got natural attributes for boxing,\u201d Olympic gold medallist Luke Campbell tells The Athletic. \u201cHe\u2019s got the fast-twitch fibres; his timing and his speed is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell knows about Garcia\u2019s threat because he fell victim to it. The British southpaw fighter faced the Californian in 2021 for the \u2018interim\u2019 WBC lightweight title in Texas, flooring him in the second round with a blistering left hand. But Garcia\u2019s left hook hurt Campbell at the end of the fifth and swung the bout in his favour.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a weapon but it\u2019s not just his lead hook: he has pop in both hands, so you have to be wary of both,\u201d said Campbell. \u201cHe\u2019s dangerous if he\u2019s going to throw with you, so a lot of fighters will throw when you throw. Now Ryan\u2019s got that ability with his speed and his timing that if he\u2019s going to stand there and throw with you at the same time, he\u2019s in a good place that he\u2019s going to land his shot before you land yours.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lead hook is so good because he closes the distance so quickly, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s size allows him to do that. Having come from super featherweight through lightweight, light welterweight, and now welterweight, he has often been the bigger man at 5ft 8\u00bdin (174cm), with a reach of 70in.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n Garcia lands a left hook on Devin Haney in April 2024 (Al Bello\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
He can also go to the body superbly with the left hook, as Campbell found out. He could not beat the count when Garcia sapped the air out of his lungs with a devastating hook to the midriff in the seventh round of their meeting.<\/p>\n
Again, while many dip to their left before throwing a hook to the body, the American stands tall and finds the angle with his long reach. Campbell\u2019s reaction was delayed before he dropped to his knee.<\/p>\n
Garcia\u2019s left hook does bring vulnerabilities. Gervonta \u2018Tank\u2019 Davis exploited them in their April 2023 meeting, blocking a couple of early left hooks in the Las Vegas fight and waiting for his opportunity.<\/p>\n
In the second round, Garcia overcommitted with the left hook and a counter left from Davis sent him over. Garcia bounced back up but was eventually stopped in the seventh by Davis.<\/p>\n
In his only other career defeat in 28 fights, Garcia couldn\u2019t time the left hook against Rolando \u2018Rolly\u2019 Romero and put in a lacklustre performance that saw him come up short on points.<\/p>\n
The open-air bout, bizarrely staged in Times Square, New York, saw him again launch a big left hook in the second round. But when it was blocked, he stood for too long in range and got countered with the same punch that sent him down.<\/p>\n
His performance against amateur rival Devin Haney in April 2024 should have been the standout of his career. Early on, Garcia hurt Haney, who was a big favourite before the bout, with a left hook that set the tone. He later floored his opponent three times. All three were caused by the same shot, which former fighter and DAZN analyst Sergio Mora said on the live TV broadcast was \u201clethal\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe may be a one-trick pony,\u201d Mora added. \u201cBut that trick is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet his victory over Haney is now recorded as a \u2018no contest\u2019 after Garcia first came in overweight, which meant Haney\u2019s light-welterweight title wasn\u2019t on the line, and then failed two separate drug tests for ostarine, a banned substance. Garcia was given a one-year ban but has always denied doping, blaming the positive test on contaminated supplements.<\/p>\n
If Benn is to pull off an upset this weekend in Las Vegas, then he has to find a way to nullify Garcia\u2019s left hook.<\/p>\n
The combination of speed, power and precision makes it a brilliant weapon. Benn will know it is coming. His chance of success depends on whether he can get out of the way of it before it finds him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crack when the punch landed sounded like a whip, splitting the air and bringing gasps from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,9045,82],"class_list":["post-891356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-global-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}