Interesting bit of history there.
It’s kind of funny to think about how so many of the old school karate guys never considered the importance of ground fighting when even within the competitive element of their own style, they get within clinching/takedown range as soon as they start throwing blows and one of them often ends up slipping to the ground on their own anyway.
One thing I definitely respect about the old time Karatekas is that, even though their style was incomplete and probably suffered from a lot of needless formalities, it’s undeniable they were tough. They conditioned their hands, did crazy workouts, and there was no fucking Mcdojo coddling and easy belt promotions. They really took their art seriously and their teachers were more like hard ass football coaches than Karate teachers.
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yes very good breakdown
those guys were nothing like the modern mcdojo types
and many of them had reps about being good street fighters
too much of a size difference.
this is a very impressive KO from Smith later on in his pro career.
there’s something to be said about a natural left hander being in an orthodox stance to land hard jabs then switching to a lateral or almost southpaw stance to add leverage to hooks that are more effective than straight shots ( unless you are tall and rangy like O’Malley where straight shots work the best ala Hearns) The opposite being Hagler, a natural righty in a southpaw stance.
We saw that with Sean Strickland using his jab and straight right then using a lateral position to hit Izzy with 26 punches with his left hook.