If you want to learn how to knock a man out, ask ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson. Below Tyson discusses with longtime HBO Boxing commentator Larry Merchant five ways to land a knockout on your opponent.
“What does it take for a real knockout puncher, to get the job done?” asked Merchant.
What follow is ferociously hard-earned wisdom.
“Being a big man really doesn’t matter,” said Tyson. “It has no significance in knocking out some one. The main point is the quickness with which you throw the punches, and the leverage which you have in the shoulder snap.
“The object of really knocking out another individual is throwing a punch where he can’t see. And then there’s combination punches. When you throw punches, you keep his mind preoccupied with the body punches, and the other two punches that come to the head are the knockout punches.
“And then again, there’s one-punch knockouts, in which they throw one punch to the body, and then the other punch to the head. Again, the opponent’s mind is so preoccupied with one punch, which rattles him just a little bit, and then that’s when the other punch comes in.
So here then are the five keys to knocking a man out:
- Speed
- Snap of shoulder
- Land the punch they don’t see
- Combination punches
- One-punch knockouts
Numbers 4 and 5 are variation on the theme – get your opponent to focus on one strike, and then hit him with another. The punch that is unseen is far more more likely to cause a KO. So 3, 4, and 5, can be combined – get your opponent to focus on one strike, and then hit him from an angle that he does not see.
1 and 2, too, can be wrapped into Iron Mike’s Rules of the Knockout. Focus on technique first, with the proper snap of the shoulder. Then focus on speed. The knockout will take care of itself.
If you work in the wrong order, and focus on power first, without understand the role of technique and speed, you may ever achieve knockout power. It is ironic – if you train immediately for the KO, throwing your punches in practice with maxim power, then you won’t get to where you want to be.
So remember what Tyson said it was, and remember too what he said it wasn’t – “Being a big man really doesn’t matter. It has no significance.”
Instead, train for technique first, learning to snap the shoulder, then add speed, set it up with a distracting punch, and then throw the punch he never sees.
Fast.
