Delivering The Uppercut Like Mike Tyson With Teddy Atlas
Many people face the problem of understanding when it is the wrong time to throw the uppercut, and this is critical to know as the uppercut can leave us very open when used wrong.
The uppercut is not a blow that is effectively thrown from a distance, as it dramatically endangers the one who throws it from afar, any opponent can beat us to the punch while we throw the uppercut, and the opponent can finish the fight right there. so If you ever thought of just throwing the uppercut in the middle of a boxing match and finishing someone, think again.
There are two main signs we should look for when throwing the uppercut:
- When the opponent is frontal and leaves an opening up the middle - when we see that the opponent gives us a direct line to his chin, through frontal stance or through an advantageous angle we got, it is an excellent sign to throw the uppercut.
- When the opponent bends to us (as opposed to upright) - the second and main sign is bent opponents who bury their chin inside their shoulders, which shortens my range for the uppercut and also reduces our risk of getting a counterblow (it is a very short blow)
The good thing about the uppercut is that it chains well with short strikes like the left hook, as it lifts the opponent's head out of his defenses and leaves his head exposed with a high chin and optimal position to end the fight with a left hook.
Who Is Teddy Atlas?
Teddy Atlas has been known as one of the last great teachers of boxing, following in the steps of the great Cus D'Amato. Teddy became a teacher himself that helped 18 boxers become world champions, including the great Mike Tyson; Lately, Teddy has been commentating on ESPN and is working hard to show how great boxing is.
Check Out Teddy's Instructionals Here! Click Learn More!
Throwing the Uppercut Like Mike Tyson
In this video Teddy is gonna teach us the uppercut which was made famous by Mike Tyson, Teddy explains that for every punch, we have a “delivery system,” which is the setup we use so we can land our shot effectively in an opening we created, Teddy emphasizes the importance of a setup and gives the analogy of the rockets - we can have a bomb but without the missile, we will never reach the target.
As the great Cus D'Amato said, “if you want to teach someone a punch, you have to have a method to get the punch, on a regular basis to get to the target,” and this is so important to understand, a punch on its own cannot do much as it must hit the target before it can do anything and how are you going to do it? Which setup/tactic are we going to use? let’s see some examples;
Teddy shows us with landing the right hand:
- We can use a simple setup to land the right hand off a jab.
- We also can use timing when we see our opponent’s head out of position on the right side, where we simply punch directly at his face.
Once you understand that each punch in boxing must have a method behind it, you will have a direction to what you want to achieve inside a fight, you will be able to deliver your punches at the right moment where it is most effective.
Teddy and Cus D'Amato wanted Tyson to work mainly on the inside because he was short with short hands making him less effective in fighting from range. On the inside before the first core principle, Cus taught him was “never have your head directly at the centerline, we want to have it on any given side no matter which side, simply take it out off the centerline.”
Before throwing the uppercut, Tyson would slip to his left, outside the opponent’s right hand, then throw a hook to the body so the opponent tucks hes elbow and opens up the middle part of his guard where we can follow up with an uppercut up the middle.
The mechanics behind the uppercut in this method starts in a low stance; as we throw the hook to the body and he moves his elbow, I come back to a low stance, anchor our feet tight to the ground, rotate our hips, snap our shoulder up and pivot our foot. remember, we want power, but we also want to keep balance
Technique Wrap Up:
- Slip the head to the left side
- Throw the left hook around the elbow to get him to move a little bit
- Deliver the uppercut
Once we perform this in a systematic way we will notice that problems might start to occur and we will need to find the correct answer to them. For example, the opponent has his elbow tight, and we cannot use the hook, so we throw an uppercut to the body instead of passing hes elbow and then come up with an uppercut to the head.
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