Analysis of Kostya: A request for Sinistar

Well with Mike , you gotta understand he was always the bigger guy. Not just with Tommy but throughout his career. You'll be hard pressed to find a fight where he's the smaller guy.
That said , ES (RIP) mentioned that mike's and Tommy's sparring sessions were always razor close . Mike had that rhythm and body work but tommy was sharp as fk with his skills and had to be held back from his right sometimes.
I think he mentions that when these two had a fight coming up he was careful about them sparring each other. Mike could take the juice out of your legs and Tommy could just straight put you on the injury list.
Didn't he crack Marlon Starling's jaw a few weeks before his fight ?

Ps - I can't see that vid but if it's the one ES put up (of course it is , it's the only one) you can see that Hearns is restraining from throwing that right with any vigor (though Mike seems to be just putting in some work too).
Methinks the goal of that session is to sharpen his left.
If you recall , loss of that right hand is what contributed significantly to his loss against Hagler.

PPS - "ever seen this" ? Lol , an hour or two after he put it out !
I'm all up on this shit.......goddamn it there HAS to be more !
 
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I wish I wish I wish that ES's sister puts those tapes up for sale.
Can you imagine all the treasures hidden away ?
 
Mike was bigger until he hit 160, then he really started facing guys who walk around bigger than he did when he wasn't fat. I still see Mike every day (that fool ate some of my lunch today, LITERALLY), he's gotten a lot more round, but his legs are still skinny as Hell. Toney, Collins, everyone he fought at LHW, all those guys were naturally bigger. Tommy might have been skinnier, but he fought as high as LHW, too.
 
Sinister said:
Mike was bigger until he hit 160, then he really started facing guys who walk around bigger than he did when he wasn't fat. I still see Mike every day (that fool ate some of my lunch today, LITERALLY), he's gotten a lot more round, but his legs are still skinny as Hell. Toney, Collins, everyone he fought at LHW, all those guys were naturally bigger. Tommy might have been skinnier, but he fought as high as LHW, too.
Click to expand...

Tommy went high as Cruiser Weight too ( I think ) but it wasn't his natural weight.
Same with JT.

I'm just basing my observations of Mike on what I can see off YT though.
He looks bigger than them all in the ring.
Not huge , but that just nobodys gonna outsize him.

All the talent n skills in the world though but it seemed he lacked that certain pop n fizz to capture any attention from the general public .
Didn't help that he had such larger than life characters like SRL , Hearns , Duran , Hagler , even guys like Benitez , Barkley , Mugabe , Eubanks , Benn etc to distract from him .
Must be disappointed but if it any relief , other than SRL , they're all doing shit(tier) than him.

Life's a bitch.
 
OMG Mike move his jab at will like a scalpel.
He even looks left handed with how fast it is.
 
The bit in the first video were Tszyu punches through the paper was very informative. It demonstrates that he was really snapping that punch in a very subtle way, landing it across the ridge of the knuckles as opposed to the whole fist.
 
My first 3 coaches were back in Bulgaria. 2 of them had trained olympic boxers. I have never seen those tricks Kostya does as a part of training- its mostly things you do when you are at home.
There were plenty of methods and exercises I havent seen anywhere outside of Bulgaria though...
 
Depends on who it is, honestly.
 
Ahh, El Intoccable. I'll definitely strongly consider it.

lol@me just now realizing this thread was meant for SinistAr.

Guess I hijacked it.

Onq said:
My first 3 coaches were back in Bulgaria. 2 of them had trained olympic boxers. I have never seen those tricks Kostya does as a part of training- its mostly things you do when you are at home.
There were plenty of methods and exercises I havent seen anywhere outside of Bulgaria though...
Click to expand...

A lot of that stuff was traded primarily between the Russians (or former USSR), and their allies, but where Boxing is concerned specifically Cuba. A lot of them also ended up in other Caribbean Countries who could easily go to Cuba to train, which the Cubans welcomed to refine their fighters for international competition.

There's 4 Caribbean trainers at my Gym total, but McCallum (Jamaican) doesn't utilize things like that so much even though his first trainer was Cuban. His methods come more from things he learned from Benton and Futch. But every now and again he'll dig into stuff like this if he has a fighter with a particular problem.

Two of the trainers are Cuban, but from different generations (so the regimens changed). The exercises their fighters do are very different from each other, but they're VERY different from what American trainers do as well, and Mexican trainers (there's a few of them here, too). Though the one whose generation was closest to Kostya is Yanqui Diaz, who was a Pro himself. Just the other day he was having the kid he trains do those same equilibrium drills. Then there's Merqui Sosa who is kind of like Mike. His training was close to the Cuban system, and every now and again you'll catch him making his kids do funny looking exercises, but for the most part he focuses on mitt and bag work like a Western trainer.
 
Sinister said:
Ahh, El Intoccable. I'll definitely strongly consider it.

lol@me just now realizing this thread was meant for SinistAr.

Guess I hijacked it.



A lot of that stuff was traded primarily between the Russians (or former USSR), and their allies, but where Boxing is concerned specifically Cuba. A lot of them also ended up in other Caribbean Countries who could easily go to Cuba to train, which the Cubans welcomed to refine their fighters for international competition.

There's 4 Caribbean trainers at my Gym total, but McCallum (Jamaican) doesn't utilize things like that so much even though his first trainer was Cuban. His methods come more from things he learned from Benton and Futch. But every now and again he'll dig into stuff like this if he has a fighter with a particular problem.

Two of the trainers are Cuban, but from different generations (so the regimens changed). The exercises their fighters do are very different from each other, but they're VERY different from what American trainers do as well, and Mexican trainers (there's a few of them here, too). Though the one whose generation was closest to Kostya is Yanqui Diaz, who was a Pro himself. Just the other day he was having the kid he trains do those same equilibrium drills. Then there's Merqui Sosa who is kind of like Mike. His training was close to the Cuban system, and every now and again you'll catch him making his kids do funny looking exercises, but for the most part he focuses on mitt and bag work like a Western trainer.
Click to expand...
Im talking about the coaches from the generation who trained those guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serafim_Todorov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivailo_Marinov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkor_Kirkorov
The Pulev brothers are trained in the same system.
The Japanese and Chinese coaches I have trained with are following different style of coaching.
Im currently in Mexico City and have my observations on local coaches, no need to mention who they teach, its obvious. But yet, style is different.
I teach my students in a mixture of what I think its best for their needs, but I do use a lot of what I have learned in Bulgaria...
 
Hmm, the way your post was worded, I just thought you were insinuating that all of the exercises Kostya was doing were perhaps of his own design. I've no doubt that a few are, as he's likely to have his own ideas. But the bulk of them are pretty standard for the type of program he was educated in.

Though it would be pretty rad to see some of the training methods unique to Bulgarians, especially if they're anywhere near as efficient as their strength training is.
 
Good read, thanks. Us aussies are proud to call Kostya Australian :cool:
 
No, I ment that the exercises in the video are just homework exercises, not something everyone does in the gym.
I think Bulgaria is doing quite well in the amateur boxing and recently in the profesional as well, concidering the population of the country and the amount of medals produced, compared to number of practitioners.
The athlete preparation in the Eastern Block has always been covering wide range of abilities. Its a common thing to crosstrain in a few different disciplines, like athletics, weightlifting, wrestling, football, high altitude training and etc.
I dont know if we have unique exercises in Bulgaria, I think all Eastern Block were using common knowledge and system, backed by medical research and extended localy by the national comitees.
But to answer your question- my first coach had me do 30 min tennis ball dribble with my footwork for start of the session for example...
 
Personally, I'd like to see an analysis for Edwin Valero. I've only watched a few of his fights, but his style looks awkward to me. Chin up, upright, very little headmovement, throws arms punches with his lead hand yet still puts guys away. He doesn't look like he's hitting very hard at all but his KO record speaks for itself.
 
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