Why dont we see the peek a boo style anymore

It's not that easy a style to use and the practitioner has to have certain abilities to make it work. Quickness and speed are mandatory. The style is also too squared up which, while it makes combinations faster it provides a bigger target (Patterson was the most knocked down heavyweight champ ever, and mostly abandoned the style when he left D'Amato). Balance and back and forth movement are sacrificed somewhat, one writer (Liebling I think) compared it to a guy with a stack of plates trying to rush forward so they wouldn't fall. Beyond D'Amato and his disciples it never caught on with anyone else. I think it's really uncomfortable to hold the hands that high too, protects the chin but makes it harder to throw punches. The guys who could make it work were phenomenally fast (Tyson, Patterson and to an extent Jose Torres). Like anything else, it's not for everyone.
 
mozfonky said:
It's not that easy a style to use and the practitioner has to have certain abilities to make it work. Quickness and speed are mandatory. The style is also too squared up which, while it makes combinations faster it provides a bigger target (Patterson was the most knocked down heavyweight champ ever, and mostly abandoned the style when he left D'Amato). Balance and back and forth movement are sacrificed somewhat, one writer (Liebling I think) compared it to a guy with a stack of plates trying to rush forward so they wouldn't fall. Beyond D'Amato and his disciples it never caught on with anyone else. I think it's really uncomfortable to hold the hands that high too, protects the chin but makes it harder to throw punches. The guys who could make it work were phenomenally fast (Tyson, Patterson and to an extent Jose Torres). Like anything else, it's not for everyone.
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oh ok that makes sense. In your opinion did it help tyson because he was fighting talller guys? I agree with the speed and reaction being a necessity . If he wasn't fighting taller guys would the peekaboo style have been effective for him?
 
ODYSSEYMEMPHIS said:
oh ok that makes sense. In your opinion did it help tyson because he was fighting talller guys? I agree with the speed and reaction being a necessity . If he wasn't fighting taller guys would the peekaboo style have been effective for him?
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having the hands up nice and high when you're short is never a bad idea. If he were fighting shorter faster guys of course it would have changed things. He fought one guy who was shorter than him (Buster Mathis Jr.) and had a lot of trouble finding the guy for a lot of reasons but when you're as tall as or taller than the guy you're facing, it doesn't always make sense to bob and weave. The style was perfect for Tyson because the moves combined offense/defense, as a short fast guy, he could take advantage of the big guys when they missed punches. The peekaboo style was heavily reliant on counterpunching and combinations. But really, it's not that far out of the conventional style. It's just modified a bit. Some of the things I think are really bad. Both Tyson and Patterson squared up too much on the inside, this is bad because you have no balance, a guy could push or pull you easily. But with Tyson, most of his opponents didn't even try to take advantage of it, they were too busy covering up. By squared up I mean standing without the right foot behind the left foot, you got no balance like that but you can throw some vicious combos.
 
heavyarms21 said:
Makunouchi Ippo uses it and is a contender at featherweight , although he lost at a chance at fighting for a world title recently
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Came here to say this.

Damn, that was a good fight.
 
ODYSSEYMEMPHIS said:
Rarely ever visit the boxing forum and dont watch boxing as much as I used to. Why do we not see the peek a boo style cus damato developed anymore. I know tyson and floyd patterson were famous for that style. It seemed to work very well for tyson and floyd (but thats not saying much since both were exceptional boxer)
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What are you talking about?
Everytime I shadow box or box in the mirror in the morning while brushing my teeth I use the peek a boo style.
 
I miss Tyson's peek a boo ownage. I think Canelo uses a similar style.
 
Lack of trainers capable of teaching it, and a lack of athletes suitable to the style.
 
people forget it now but in the fifties Cus was thought of as an absolute screwball, the style never really caught on. Both Tyson and Patterson also reverted to a more or less conventional style later in their careers too. Peek a boo meant having the palms towards your face and just below your eyes, that makes it a little more time consuming to punch. Patterson used to compensate for this by throwing very short punches and by not turning his fists horizontally, Patterson and Tyson are a toss up for fastest hands ever in the heavyweight division and I'd lean towards Patterson.
 
mozfonky said:
people forget it now but in the fifties Cus was thought of as an absolute screwball, the style never really caught on. Both Tyson and Patterson also reverted to a more or less conventional style later in their careers too. Peek a boo meant having the palms towards your face and just below your eyes, that makes it a little more time consuming to punch. Patterson used to compensate for this by throwing very short punches and by not turning his fists horizontally, Patterson and Tyson are a toss up for fastest hands ever in the heavyweight division and I'd lean towards Patterson.
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When did Tyson become more conventional? He was a textbook peekaboo fighter throughout his career and all the hti was abandon a lot of technique and become more one dimensional after he left Rooney.

tyson held his gloves not always in the peekaboo position even early in his career sometimes he ahd his glvoes glued to his face and sometimes he had them more pointed outwards he did it when he was being aggressive and threatening and pressuring the other guy. but he did it from the beginning from his first pro fight on.
The peekaboo style IS a defensive style and not the ideal style for everyone because as you've said you have your hands most of the time in a defensive position.

That's also why the style was absed on and tyson was a perfect example on coutnerpunching slipping and countering tyosns aid himself it was an aggressive counterpuncher because the peekaboo style is a defensive position.

And that's not only true for the D'Amato styel peekaboo but all fighters who fight with their gloves glued to their faces and there are a ton today Arthur Abraham, Joshua Clottey, a few years ago Winky Wright and Ike Quartey and also to be topical Bermane Stiverne.

They all suffer from the same weakness and it's that they get pushed onto the defensive and don't come out of their shell for the rest of the fight all of them have that problem because the peekaboo style whether it's the D'Amato version or from anyone else is a defensive style.
D'Amato becaus eof that made his guys counterpunch a lot, had them sue a ton of headmovement and made them use angles so that he could make the most offesnviely out of a defensive style.
 
PivotPunch said:
When did Tyson become more conventional? He was a textbook peekaboo fighter throughout his career and all the hti was abandon a lot of technique and become more one dimensional after he left Rooney.

tyson held his gloves not always in the peekaboo position even early in his career sometimes he ahd his glvoes glued to his face and sometimes he had them more pointed outwards he did it when he was being aggressive and threatening and pressuring the other guy. but he did it from the beginning from his first pro fight on.
The peekaboo style IS a defensive style and not the ideal style for everyone because as you've said you have your hands most of the time in a defensive position.

That's also why the style was absed on and tyson was a perfect example on coutnerpunching slipping and countering tyosns aid himself it was an aggressive counterpuncher because the peekaboo style is a defensive position.

And that's not only true for the D'Amato styel peekaboo but all fighters who fight with their gloves glued to their faces and there are a ton today Arthur Abraham, Joshua Clottey, a few years ago Winky Wright and Ike Quartey and also to be topical Bermane Stiverne.

They all suffer from the same weakness and it's that they get pushed onto the defensive and don't come out of their shell for the rest of the fight all of them have that problem because the peekaboo style whether it's the D'Amato version or from anyone else is a defensive style.
D'Amato becaus eof that made his guys counterpunch a lot, had them sue a ton of headmovement and made them use angles so that he could make the most offesnviely out of a defensive style.
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early in his career he used it a lot, later he didn't I remember in the buster douglas fight, he tried to go back to it mid-fight when he realized he was in trouble. Later on, I can't recall in my mind one time when he held the gloves up in peekaboo fashion.
 
No^.

And moz is right. Tyson didn't use the peek-a-boo style a whole lot in his later career. He wasn't with any trainers proficient in it. Aaron Snowell certainly didn't learn a whole lot about it. The last time I recall him bringing back anything similar was in the Danny Williams fight, and that's what likely led to the injury.
 
^ is that because of his height? It seemed all of cus' fighters used it.

I like the conversation in aka CC between ali and cus and cus seemed pretty riled up about the ali - floyd fight. (he hurt his back).
 
RepairManManMan said:
^ is that because of his height? It seemed all of cus' fighters used it.

I like the conversation in aka CC between ali and cus and cus seemed pretty riled up about the ali - floyd fight. (he hurt his back).
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I Never really watched much Buster Douglas Sr. fight, I think he was mainly a stick and move guy who had weight problems. Temperament wise, he should have never been a fighter, Frazier used to say that he got his chance at the Olympics because Buster wasn't passionate about boxing and dropped out. He needed a cus type of guy who'd harass you but it drove him away, he complained that Cus would follow him everywhere and watch him. From what I understand he had some talent and could have done more.

ya, god bless cus, Floyd dumped him then immediately got creamed by Liston but Cus always thought the world of Floyd and wouldn't hear a bad word about him from anyone. In fact, in the very first Tyson interview I saw, when he was 17, he seemed to have little respect for Patterson and said that Cus wouldn't hear any of it.
 
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