- Welcome back to another episode
of Scenic Fights,
Fight Scenes Breakdown.
I'm Chad Vázquez.
- Logan Lo.
- The Man From Somewhere,
and we have a cool episode.
Really, really nice anime called Megalo Box.
And just to tell you a little bit about it.
It is a re-imagining of one
of the most influential animes,
Ashita no Joe.
The story focuses on an underground boxer named Joe.
Who's trying to become a professional,
well-known fighter.
As an MMA fighter,
I started in the underground scene,
as you remember, in the Bronx.
- So, when he says he started in the underground scene,
I mean, we're talking crazy underground.
While there was a ring, there's blood on the ring
from the like the 60s.
I mean, I was worried about his safety,
both from a violent standpoint and from cooties.
- Absolutely
Yeah
And what's funny too is that
you had some really interesting characters there too.
Which is very similar to this fight scene.
So, what do we have here?
[Chad] We have:
vs.
and this is Joe's first professional fight.
We're going to see how well he handles this
new experience.
And it's a cool scene.
And I kind of see my story to a certain degree.
In this fighter's story, in trying to fight underground
to a professional level,
even though I did not go that far.
- He went to like Madison Square Garden.
- That's my last fight, yeah.
- That's somewhere.
- So without further ado,
let's get to this fight.
Let's do it.
[Chad] Fight begins here,
[Logan] Right, he's going right in.
[Chad] Slipping, weaving, snapback,
basic head movements.
All right, got a jab there.
Jab, cross.
Okay, he missed, and Joe's getting him.
So here we go.
Boom! Nice hit.
All right, so Joe was slipping Shark's punches
and it seems like he was actually really close.
Where actually he could've stepped and pivot.
And there's actually a nice footwork there
he could've have done.
So actually, why don't we break that down
on what Joe could've done better.
So on our Attack on Titan breakdown
we actually went over a little bit of slipping
but I showed you an example of what Eren did.
He went slip to a grappling position
and here, this is boxing rules.
So we're going to go over how Joe's slipping well
but using it to actually get
to the side to continue striking, right?
Different thinking.
So here we go.
When the jab comes,
head out this way. Details, is that when you slip
my knees and hips bend, right?
Beginners sometimes make the mistake of just
kind of doing this.
And that's not, how that works.
You have to use your lower body,
your knees and hips.
To actually move your head at an angle.
So when the jab comes again, there you go.
So Joe was doing that for the jab and cross.
So if the cross comes, there's a pivot
and you see my butt goes out
at an angle.
If I slipped the jab, my butt goes out at an angle.
That helps move my head to avoid the punch.
Now Joe is actually getting in.
[Chad] So when the slip happened,
he was actually this close to his opponent, Shark.
What he could've done instead of backing out in front
is exited to the side.
Here's an example.
You'll see, I'll slip the jab as Joe was doing, right.
He's getting this close to his opponent Shark,
but now being this close, instead of going backwards,
stepping out at an angle with the rear leg.
Do you see how that moves my body out the way?
Now, when I pivot watch while I pull my front leg back.
There's space here
It gives me enough room to fire off.
Whatever I see that's open,
and then come back and relocate
to a much more safe position.
That'd be a much better strategy, I think
Joe could've done, for slipping.
[Chad] All right, so we have a six,
And the punches in boxing are a numbered,
from one to twelve.
[Logan] Okay. He's running.
[Chad] Yep.
okay.
[Logan] Oof.
[Chad] And he's feeling the power of that punch
[Logan] Jesus Christ.
[Chad] Okay. Now, that's a knockdown.
That face says it all.
(laughter)
- That really does
- That captures what he felt just now.
- Now he's strategically going to want to stay down
for as long as possible.
- Yeah, so you do see that in boxing,
where if it's a good hit,
you know strategy is you try to take your time
and all the way up to the last second,
then stand up. - Right.
- Just to gather yourself, get back into the fight.
[Chad] And we're out of time. He snaps out of it
gets up.
Shark doesn't like that.
[Logan] Nope.
All right.
[Chad] All right. So we go.
Next exchange.
[Logan] And, stop
[Chad] And now, stops.
[Logan] Gotcha.
[Chad] All right. First round.
That was cool. Nice little intro
of what I saw, basic boxing.
Head movement,
punches.
- He looks a little deflated,
- Yeah
And something my coach taught me,
my boxing coach, is once a round's done as you walk
to the corner, take your mouthpiece off.
And this way, things start moving very smoothly.
- Why do you take your mouth guard in particular?
- Oh the time. You only have a minute.
So you would make the every second count
- So you want it as much oxygen
- Yeah. Or just rather, just have it out
so you can breathe. Definitely.
And start talking, and just start
recovering, on that minutes, as soon as possible
because it's only a minute.
- Gotcha. - Especially how hard that round was.
[Chad] He's exhausted.
Yeah.
Almost forgot his mouthpiece.
And man, and, when your trainer's panicking,
that's how you know things are bad.
And I like this.
So, that's so true with the nerves.
I've had that feeling where I'm going to a fight
your legs feel so heavy
- Right.
- Man, you'd be surprised on what it does to your body.
If you're not mentally there.
- Because your heart's racing
- Oh man!
- And you just feel like, you've like,
ran for hours, just exhausted.
- You know one of our friends,
we have a mutual friend of ours named Carey.
He told me that the difference between fighting
in front of a crowd, and just fighting
in a ring with just a partner is the difference
between walking on a plank of wood on the floor
and walking on the same plank of wood,
like 30 stories up.
- Sure.
- Right, it's the same plank of wood
but it just causes all of that anxiety.
- And that's what we're seeing here right now,
with the water effect.
- So, let's keep on going.
[Logan] All right. Round two.
[Chad] All right, here we go.
So now he's just trying to be evasive,
and circle out.
And so it is pretty cool, is that they are
kind of showing the concept of footwork.
So in this part of the fight,
we see Joe being evasive.
And exiting onto the sides,
while being chased, by Shark.
I like this scene, because it's showing
a roadmap of footwork,
when you have a very aggressive forward fighter.
Let's go into it.
So obviously, my opponent's coming in a straight line.
So most important thing is to,
learn how to create distance.
What happens is, as you guys see,
they're fighting in the ring.
There's an environment that is closing them in.
So you have to know how to circle the sides at some point.
Okay.
I'm in an orthodox stance right now.
What you have to understand,
is that as I circle on one side
compared to the other,
these two sides have different strategies
how you use them.
What do I mean?
The unique feature, of circling to a left side
is that it gives you an active jab.
A jab does not mechanically work well,
on my right side.
But the left side, gives you an active jab.
That's a unique thing about using,
the left side is knowing how to throw your jab.
Key detail.
If my opponent's here, and I'm stepping out.
Look at my lead foot.
You'll notice that when I step out,
my toe turns inward.
That's very important.
If I step on my toes in this direction, well
that's the direction where my jab might mostly go to.
But if I turn, my heel, it actually helps me turn
and throw a jab smoothly,
on target, the guy I'm fighting.
But what about the right?
The right side, gives you beautiful footwork.
I can do some sort of cross step.
The cross step, helps me go into a walking action.
If my opponent's there,
I keep up guard, like so.
My eyes are on him.
At any point, he charge me.
I can flick and come back
to my fight stance.
Learning how to walk actually helps you cover
a large amount of distance
in a short period of time.
It's a good strategy, to cover a lot
of distance and make an opponent chase you.
So now you see it.
The lead side gives you an active jab.
The rear site gives you unique foot work abilities.
They're both different,
but they both play a role,
on how you exit out, with a charging opponent.
And that's why at one point in the scene,
you do see him, kind of run.
He's using that particular strategy
of footwork, for getting out.
He's actually doing a cross step,
to a run. And back to his fight stance.
While being chased by a Shark.
And yeah, so his mind is still
not in the right place.
- Right?
- And that's what that water effect represents.
It's just that, that, that nerves.
And what does to your legs, man.
- Now, how important is the mental game when it comes
to something like this?
- It's huge.
The way to really address it.
Especially if you have issues, is you got to keep doing it.
You've just got to keep fighting.
There's gonna be fights that you just, you just bombed.
And in my grappling tournaments,
there's times that I've screwed up.
I just wasn't mentally in it.
And that's why I lost matches.
But, the more you do it,
you start finding yourself.
[Chad] Okay, so now we're looking at the corner.
All right, so by the way, the corner, the kid is Sachio,
and the coach, let's call him Pops.
[Logan] Okay.
[Chad] And so Sachio is trying to tell him,
you know there's something wrong here.
You have to ease.
He sees a flaw in the technique and,
and the communication
- The technique of Shark or the technique of
- of Joe. Yeah.
Okay. So now they're recovering as a team now.
And so, you know, the corner is very important.
There's things, a good coach can see
that's happening in a fight,
that the fighter can't always see.
- Right.
- And so it's important for the coach that in those breaks,
they calm the fighter down.
- Are you hearing everything the coach says?
Or you're so exhausted, that you're like
- Depends on the fighter, man.
You know, it depends on how well the fighter is.
So some fighters can just, you know,
they let the nerves get in their head
and they just can't hear anything.
And so they're, uncoachable at that point.
- Right.
- They're on their own.
- Okay.
- And there's other fighter's that are discipline
and they know, how to have
that conversation with their coach.
So, between the rounds he goes,
"Dude you're dropping a right-hand a lot,
that's why he's catching you,
watch out for that.
But also notice that he does this."
- Right.
- Right, so it really depends on the coach,
the fighter, how disciplined the fighter is
in that moment, and how well they communicate.
- Gotcha.
- It's an interesting dynamic.
[Chad] And now, we're back.
- Okay. And I noticed the water effect is not here anymore.
- Nope.
- He's a lot more confident.
- Yep.
- All right. Three minute round.
- So he, now he's dancing.
That's how confident he is. - There you go.
- Little salsa, you know what I mean.
(laughter)
[Chad] All right, and here we go.
[Logan] Bam.
So, he's literally dancing.
[Chad] Yep and, and now here we go.
Yep. And one, the jab, okay.
Shark could've possibly just blocked it
and moved backwards, or a nice little move is a snapback.
So why don't we actually break that down
on certain little strategies just to deal
with the good jabs coming our way.
So, Shark took a good jab to the face.
There's two things he could've done,
that would've helped him avoid that.
Let's go over first, a head movement.
The snapback.
All right.
So, Logan's doing a stepping jab, right?
If Shark, identifies it.
When he came back here,
he could've moved back himself
and lean back.
Now, I could come back and fire off
or just reset, the distance there.
That's one quick option on just using a snapback
against a jab for example.
Another thing is actually using a blocking tool.
We'll call it catch.
It's not a parry, it's a forward block.
So, if Logan's coming in, in a strong jab,
I catch it and I move backwards.
That's the key detail, is to move backwards.
If I catch, and he throws that punch and I stay,
I'm in measurement of the second punch.
So it's important when doing a catch,
you move back.
So again, that jab comes in.
I have distance here,
I can better see that second punch
He can't reach me.
I can move out of the way, counter, et cetera.
So those are good two options that
Shark could've done with that jab.
What's happening here is, aggressive defense.
Floyd Mayweather does this the best.
And so, there's actually smart
footwork that's happening here.
That's happening and he's using
slipping, weaving.
And he's making him chase him.
And he opens up for counters.
Like this one that's come right now
[Chad] Good base there.
And then the fight ends with that beautiful overhand right.
[Logan] Bam! Knocked that mouthguard out
[Chad] Boom!
Joe wins.
So actually let's break that down.
There's actually a good concept there
of footwork, on how to move.
Getting an opponent to chase,
which sets up counter attacks.
And this is what my boxing coach would call it,
aggressive defense.
Let's break this style down right now.
- Cool.
- So now we're at the final stage of the fight.
Joe had a nice moment with Pops and Sachio,
and he's going back with a much better mindset.
And what we see, demonstrate is
aggressive defense.
And so what's happening here?
Well, he's purposely making Shark chase him.
And so the thinking is this.
Joe's using a counter fighter strategy.
You have to harass your partner's guard
and use footwork that helps you exit
to make this guy chase you.
So in the boxing context, the jab, for example.
A jab hitting the guard, or obviously the body,
or the face will be used to get this chase going.
And you see Joe get some hits in,
whatever punch he use, to get him to react.
Now, if you notice he hits,
whatever punch he uses and relocates.
This creates a chase.
I'm telling you in sparring,
whenever you hit a guy
and you just leave.
That person wants that punch back.
There's something psychological that happens
where they're like "Yo this guy just hit me."
Just try that strategy if you're in a gym.
Just hit a guy and then quickly back up and relocate
watch him chase you,
because he wants to hit back.
And so this is what Joe, starts doing to Shark.
[Chad] He hits him with a good jab
right in the face. Right?
So he's slipping, slipping,
and then he backs out.
And so, as the chase happens, where Shark's getting mad
there's a chase where he's going forward,
Joe's evading him, moving around.
That's where as Joe stops,
he comes over, with an overhand
and that's a knockout punch.
Winning his first professional battle
- What do I like?
I like the demonstration of different punches,
and recognizing the actual footwork strategies that you see
in boxing and how Joe was using it to survive Shark.
One, when he wasn't mentally there.
And then when he was
to win the fight back with that overhand.
thought that was really cool.
I also really appreciate the,
psychological part of fighting.
Where he's going back into the fight
and you see him walking in water.
I've been there before in my own competition experience
whether it's waiting for a fight,
or sometimes just not mentally being there
feeling super exhausted, and feeling that weight
in my legs as I'm trying to move into the rounds there.
It's cool they captured what that is
when you are not mentally there.
What I also really like was the corner dynamic
between Joe, Sachio and Pops.
And there was a bit of fear there,
and doubt in the beginning of the fight,
but then how the team, ride together
and try to just re-focus the fighter
on a goal and what to do.
And, through my experience watching fights
and obviously being there myself
something I really appreciate.
Thought it was really cool that they
focused on that dynamic.
And lastly, the story is close to my story.
What I went through in my fighting career.
A poor guy who was trying to go from underground
to a professional league.
Personally in my life, you know,
I went through that.
I obviously didn't go all the way to that level
but I appreciate it.
All in all, this fight scene gets an
A-minus.
Now, go check out the other anime break downs,
hope you guys enjoy that.
See you guys later.