The Craftiest Southpaw Of All Time

Footwork Wins Fights Book: http://www.modernmartialartist.com/do... Pernell Whitaker is a four weight class world champion, known for his speed and incredible defense. Whitaker is an insanely fun fighter to watch, both because of his technical skill and his love for playing to the crowd.

Ali Footwork Video:    • Muhammad Ali's Footwork & Jab - TECHN...  

But as much as he clowned, it was a terrible mistake for a competitor to not take him seriously. , Whitaker was severly dangerous when he needed to be.

Jabs can be difficult for southpaw fighters, as their opponents opposite lead hand can easily get in the way of landing clean. As such, a lot of fighters focus more on controlling their opponents lead hand to clear a path for their rear, rather than trying to jab around it.

This was not so for Pernell Whitaker. Whitaker was a total master of the open stance jab, making it the foundation of his entire style.

In fact, Pernell heavily utilized the same circle and jab footwork as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Sugar Ray Leonard. But astonishingly, hbe found a way to make it work as a southpaw. If you haven’t seen my Muhammad Ali video on this technique, I’ve left a link in the discription. But the basic is that Ali would cross step his back foot behind him as he jabbed, hopped and pivoted off of his lead leg. This footwork pattern is incredibly effective at turning and getting the inside angle, keeping a fighter safely sideways while opening up his opponent simultaneously.

As a southpaw, Pernell used this footwork pattern to circle to the outside, which seems fairly straight forward, except for the fact that Whitaker needed to keep his foot on the inside of his opponents to cleanly land his jabs, while circling in the opposite direction.