Fighting someone faster than you can be a tough task to handle. I was almost always the faster guy in a fight and didn’t have to experience that feeling until I hit my 6th year into boxing. We were having a typical gym war where a gym from another city brought all of their fighters over and we would spar. There was this one kid who was shadowboxing in the mirror, throwing short shots in a fast shuffle. My friends brought my attention to his speed and I brushed them off as “incomplete punches.” I told them “those aren’t real punches.” I was 100% wrong.
As soon as the bell rang and we met in the middle of the ring, I felt my eyes close and my head snaps back. Ir didn’t hurt bad but I knew 100% that I got hit. The problem was, I never saw him throw the punch. He was so fast that I wasn’t able to ever catch his glove leave his chin. It was him in his stance, and me getting hit, no in-between. As you would imagine, not being able to see your opponent’s punches is quite frustrating and can, make it very hard to win the fight.
Luckily, after getting beat up for a round, I was able to use my experience to pull off a close fight. After that fight, I spent a lot of time on improving the techniques I sued in the fight, and to study new ones if I ever got caught in that situation again.
In this article, let’s dive into how to fight someone faster than you.
How to Fight a Faster Opponent
There is an old saying in boxing that speed kills, however, there is another saying that says “timing beats speed, and precision beats power.” These are absolutely true, but are only a part of the equation, so let’s dissect how to beat a faster fighter.
Always Keep Your Hands Up and Your Chin Down
When it comes to facing a faster foe, you don’t want to make any mistakes. Everything you throw will have to be perfect. You want to keep to the basics of keeping your chin down and your hands up. You also want your shoulders defending your chin as you are throwing punches. There is no room to leave yourself open as fast punches don’t need to be hard to put you down. It’s the punches you don’t see coming that hurt the most.
Timing is Everything
One thing you will have to work on consistently is your timing. This is a more mental thing than it is anything else. You will have to learn how to be intuitive and observative. This will come with looking at your opponent and either seeing or feeling when they are about to throw the punch. You will have to watch their habits and be able to capitalize on them.
Here are a few ways to time your opponent:
Look for Quirks/Mistakes
One of the best things you can do is to watch your opponent and try to avoid an early firefight because the faster fighter is always going to get their first in a firefight. So what you want to do is pay close attention to any quirks or mistakes they make.
For example, in my fight, I noticed that my opponent bounced around, and then had to set his feet to throw a punch. This allowed me to know when a punch was coming, and I would fire off as soon as he set his feet and land my punches as he was trying to get his off. On the footage, it looked like I knew exactly when he was about to throw and it was simply the result of timing his quirks.
Another way you can do this is to look for mistakes. If your opponent carries his jab low after he throws it, then you can simply fire off your right hand or right hook as soon as they shoot the jab, or even as they are hitting you. This will make them think twice about throwing their shots.
Feint
A good way to weed out those mistakes is to throw a lot of feints. This will show you how your opponent will react to certain strikes. Whether they are trying to counter over your jab, or are moving in either direction from your right, etc. As you feint, you want to put this into your mental database and use that as a way to time them the next time you throw your shot and they react in the very way you expected.
Come Off the Center Line
Another good technique is to simply come off the center line when you throw your shots. The reason you want to do this is a fast fighter can often see you coming and cut your strike short by hitting you first or countering your shots. However, if you throw your punches while moving off the centerline, then you won’t be available to counter, and your punches can land while your opponent is in the middle of their strike. Mike Tyson and Roy Jones were masters at doing this successfully.
Bait Them In
Something that works really well against fast fighters is to bait them in. When you’re stepping backward your opponent has to make two moves in order to hit you, one is to step in, the other is to throw the punch. What this does is put you a move ahead of them because while they are chasing you, once they are mid-step, you want to plant your feet quickly and fire off a shot as they step in on you. To see this executed watch the end of the Marquez- Pacquiao 4 fight.
Make it Rough and Wear Them Down
One thing about speed is it takes incredible stamina and muscle endurance to maintain. Speed is the first thing to go when you get tired. So an option you have is to wear your opponent down. Get them on the ropes and beat on their hands, shoulders, and body. Not only does this wear down their muscles and body, but it also smothers them and puts you both in a short-range, where speed matters less. Castillo and Madiana have done this well against Floyd Mayweather.
Improve Your Speed and Reflexes
If you want to fare well against fast fighters, you will need to work on your reflexes and your own hand speed. This will make the gap in speed much less of a problem, especially if you are able to perceive the punches coming at you. Let’s dive into some highlights on how to improve each.
How to Improve Your Hand Speed
You can see an in-depth guide hereon on how to punch faster. Here, let’s touch on some highlights.
Punch Faster
The first tip is to punch faster. You want to make sure that you are throwing each punch to the best of its ability each time. Many fighters cut corners and slow their punches down in order to save stamina. Instead, you want to throw as fast as you can and get in good enough shape to do that the entire fight. This will also help you develop the fast-twitch muscles and take your hand speed to the next level.
Shadowbox With Gloves On
This is one of my favorite tricks to increase hand speed. Shadowboxing is a great exercise to increase hand speed, but when you add 18 oz gloves into the equation, it can take your hand speed to the next level. Do this for 3-5 rounds per day, and you will see your hand dramatically increase in just one week’s time. Just make sure you’re punching as fast as you can with them on.
Relax Your Punches
Many fighters make the mistake of tensing up their punches to make them fast, and it has the opposite effect. What you want to do instead is to relax your arms as you throw but throw with the same intensity. You will find your hands flowing like water.
You can learn more by watching this video:
Improving Your Reflexes
This is going to be a task that involves a perfect relationship between your body and your mind. Your mind will have to be fast enough to perceive the punches, and your body fast enough to get out of the way. Because of that, you have to train both.
Focus on Defense as Much as Offense
The way you train your body for defense is to do a defensive move for every punch you throw. It doesn’t matter if it’s a block, slip, or shoulder roll, you want to do 1 for every punch you throw. So if you throw a 3 punch combo, follow it, or preface it, with a total of 3 defensive moves.
Spar With a Defense Mindset
The best way to work on your defense and your reflexes is to do defense only sparring and allow your opponent to throw shots without throwing anything back. This will get you in the habit of getting punches thrown at you so you won’t overreact when punches come.
Which brings us to our next tip.
Don’t Fear the Punch
One of the worst things you can do is get psyched out by someone who is faster than you. When your mind is in a state of fear it operates slower and in a much more flawed fashion. Rather than escaping punches, your nervous energy will cause you to run into them or worse, freeze up when they come at you. Use tricks like meditation, and lots of sparring, to keep a calm mind when getting hit.
Other Options
Other options to improve reflexes can include things like the reflex bar, working on the mitts, and having someone toss a tennis ball at you and make you dodge continuously. You can even have a partner swing a pool noodle at you to help your mind and your body gets used to seeing and moving out of the way of blows.
There’s Always a Way to Win a Fight
The beautiful thing about fighting is that you don’t have to be the stronger or the faster guy to win a fight, you simply have to be the smarter fighter. This isn’t a tough man’s sport, it’s a smart man’s sport, and the smarter fighter will always win.