GUEST POST : Rubén Olivares - Mr. Knockout

Credit Photo : Bettman / Getty Images

The following article is a guest submission from Discord server patron Matt Gioia (@Gioiabeans), a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu who studies history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Matt is one of the most appreciated and active patrons of The Fight Site. He previously wrote an article on the great Tommy Hearns, that you can read here. For his second guest post, Matt decided to take a close look at Ruben Olivares who he became a fan of after reading this article on The Fight Site which saw the great Mexican ranked number one all-time in the bantamweight division.

Opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Fight Site staff.

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Often, the most iconic figures in combat sports are associated with a specific technique that even the most casual of fans can identify as “their move”. Every person who has tuned into a Mirko Cro Cop fight hoped to see him unleash a devastating left kick to his opponent’s temple. Tommy Hearns had fans salivating over his chopping right cross before the bell had even rang. While both of these techniques were renowned by combatant and fan alike, it was possible to diffuse said attacks. Legendary bouts, such as Fedor Emelianenko’s title defense against the Croatian, and arguably the greatest boxing match in history—Hagler-Hearns—showed that if you could fight at a range where such a devastating weapon could not be employed, victory would follow. 

Like Cro Cop and Hearns, Ruben Olivares employed one of the most dominant and feared weapons in the history of combat sports. Over the first fifty-eight contests of his professional career, only two of Olivares’ victories reached the judges’ scorecards. Many of these knockouts were via Olivares’ left hook, which— unlike the Hearns chopping cross or the Cro Cop left kick—could be employed at every range of the fight. 

Olivares’ left hook was such a lethal tool that before it even landed it fundamentally dictated the footwork of his opponent. Able to both lead and fight off the back foot, you rarely see a sequence in which Olivares and his opponent move counter clockwise for more than a second or two. Olivares opponents are forced to do this due to the crippling effect of his left hook which—if they moved toward it—increased the likelihood of Olivares ending their night early.

Because of the power Olivares possessed, his opponents did everything they could to stay away from this punch, a strategy that favored fighting at a distance, as the left hook is normally much more effective at close range. To implement his left hook at range, Olivares alternated the rhythm of his punches and overthrew his hook to enter and in-fight.

While the jab was not one of Ruben Olivares’ primary offensive weapons, it played a prominent role in setting up opponents for his patented left hook. The first round of many of the Olivares fights we have on film usually revolve around Olivares gauging his opponents with his jab. Thrown or feigned as individual strikes, the purpose of these jabs was to gauge the distance, assimilate his opponents defensive responses, and (most importantly) to acclimate his opponents to a certain timing in order to break it.

The first round of his battle with Lionel Rose for the WBC and WBA World Bantamweight Title exemplifies the purpose of Olivares’s jab in relation to his wicked left hook. 

In each of these sequences, Olivares throws a single jab to the head of Rose. Each time, Rose parries Olivares’ jab while moving his head to the outside of the jab. This shows Olivares what defense Rose will employ to any strike Rose believes is a jab.

Through the first minute of the fight, Olivares has determined how Rose will defend punches that he believes will be jabs. At the same time, Olivares has conditioned Rose to expect a specific timing, which when Olivares changes, leaves Rose vulnerable to strikes.

As Olivares throws his jab from the same arm position as his hook, when Olivares starts to throw, Rose attempts to parry a jab that is not there, bringing him closer to Olivares. Rose’s failed parry exposes his jaw, which Olivares punishes with using his hook. Olivares did not just jab and feint to the head as he employed level changes to gauge his opponents reactions as well. 

Through this level change and feint, Olivares is able to determine that if he lowers his base to potentially attack Rose’s body, Rose’s response will be to lower his rear hand to protect his body. 

With the prior information in mind, as Olivares changes levels, Rose applies the same defense as before. Instead of attacking the body, Olivares throws a long left hook to the head of Rose and lands to the head. 

The purpose of Olivares’ jab was to learn his opponents’ defensive tendencies, and to set and break the timing of his punches while leaving them vulnerable to his left hook, a weapon that when first employed, made up the majority of Olivares’ attacks for the rest of the night.   

After Olivares established the timing of his jab, his opponents were consistently thrown off by the timing of his left hook in comparison.

As Efren Torres is expecting a follow up jab, as Olivares throws he attempts to parry the supposed jab. Due to the difference in timing, Olivares lands the left hook while Torres’ hands are down, leading to a devastating knockout.

Olivares’ left hook was without a doubt his most punishing weapon, yet his ability to use it at a distance is what has etched him into the annals of history. The primary tactic Olivares used when at range with his opponent is to overshoot his left hook to obtain a single collar tie on his opponent. 

Here Olivares throws his hook with the intention of it surpassing his opponent’s head. This allows him to gain a single collar tie on his opponent’s lead side. This pulls Castillo into an inside battle, the aspect of the fight that favors Olivares the most.

As Torres attempts to capitalize on Olivares being against the ropes, Olivares throws a wide left hook to obtain his collar tie and force the infight. 

This tactic was vital to Olivares’ success as he was one of boxing’s greatest infighters. By having this weapon, Olivares was consistently able to determine the range his fights took place in. In wars, such as his fights with Chucho Castillo and Alexis Arguello (who were both elite inside fighters in their own right) the ability to control the range the fight would take place in, allowed him to shift the momentum in his favor at certain junctures.

Olivares’ success in the realm of infighting is so intriguing due to its stark contrast to the tactics used by Roberto Duran, inarguably the sports’ greatest infighter. Whereas Duran’s tactics emphasized the defensive properties of the infight, Olivares focuses on the offensive properties. 

When on the inside, Duran primarily tried to stay on the lead shoulder of his opponent, inserted an underhook on his opponents rear side, and grappled his opponents lead hand in order to land uppercuts. This strategy was so effective as by planting his head on the lead side of his opponent he was able to negate the other fighter’s ability to use his rear hand: his adversary would have to punch through themselves to land a blow.

Since Duran places his head on the lead side of Palomino, Palomino is unable to throw a right hook to the head. Duran proceeds to obtain an underhook on his right hand, preventing him from throwing an uppercut, completely negative any offensive attacks stemming from Palomino’s power side. 

Olivares took a much different approach as he primarily attempted to place his head on the right side of his opponent: this allowed Olivares to freely use his left hook to attack his opponent’s body. To accomplish this he tended to shift his upper body as he threw his left hook so that he would end up on the right side of his opponent. 

As Olivares closes the distance on Castillo, Olivares upper body shifts so that it is reminiscent of a southpaw stance, while his lower body remains in an orthodox stance. This enables Olivares to still throw the left hook while being on the right side of his opponent. 

Once Olivares entered the inside on his preferred side, his objective was to use his left hook to attack both the head and body of his opponent.

However, when Olivares was not able to enter the infight on his preferred side, his ability to use his left hook was severely lessened. This is mostly seen in the second bout of his legendary trilogy with Chucho Castillo. 

Castillo’s objective during his second fight with Olivares was to negate the advantage Olivares held in the exchanges. To do this, Castillo forced Olivares to only exchange in close when Olivares was on the left shoulder of Castillo, using a lower base, frames, and clever footwork. 

As Olivares shifts his upper body to enter the infight on Castillo’s right side, Castillo’s overhand right acts as a frame to prevent Olivares from obtaining the underhook. With the frame in place, Castillo throws an uppercut to create space so that he can turn out of the infight, resetting to a favorable distance.

As Olivares tries to shift once again, Castillo completely lowers his base to decrease the amount of real estate for Olivares to hit. Before Olivares can establish any control over Castillo, Castillo fires a right hook while swapping head positions with Olivares, making Olivares go to his weaker side. Following this Castillo alternates between throwing uppercuts and digging his shoulder into Olivares’ chest in order to create space between them so that he can reset the distance.

Castillo’s consistent ability to not only neutralize Olivares in the infight, but to limit the length of the inside exchanges created huge problems for Olivares, as he lost the early rounds. Olivares however, was able to counteract this problem in two ways: First, he no longer used the hook as his main weapon. Rather, he used the hook to control the distance between him and Castillo, which forced Castillo to consistently defend at different ranges instead of focusing on his own offense. Secondly, Olivares used his rear hand to deliver punishing uppercuts and crosses to Castillo, as Castillo’s defense was mostly focused on negating Olivares’ left hand. Once Castillo was forced to respect Olivares’ right hand, ‘Rockabye Ruben’ had more opportunities to strike effectively with his left.  

As Olivares shifts inside, Castillo uses both of his hands to both frame off of Olivares’ head and to push him to his less preferred side of the infight. When this occurs, Olivares uses his left to push Castillo back while throwing a cross to punctuate the exchange. 

When Castillo tries to pivot out range, Olivares uses a single collar tie to stay in range. Olivares then takes advantage of the crouch of Castillo by connecting with a rear uppercut.

As Castillo lowers his base to deal with the potential of infighting with Olivares following the lead hook, Olivares uses his left forearm as a frame to elevate Castillo’s chin in order to expose it to the proceeding right cross. 

Olivares has conditioned Castillo to believe that any entry from the pocket will consist of a leading left hook. Therefore to counter, Castillo throws a short cross, meant to land prior to Olivares’ hook and to act as a frame to prevent a long infighting exchange. However, instead of attempting to enter the infight, Olivares counters this counter by throwing a cross as his upper body shifts, catching Castillo completely off guard. Castillo exits the exchange since Olivares does not have a hold of any part of him. In the next exchange Olivares attempts to do the same thing, except instead of trying to counter Olivares, Castillo slips to the rear side of Olivares, allowing Olivares to enter the infight on his preferred side allowing him to connect with his patented left hook. 

Ruben Olivares’ ability to use his left hook at every range of a fight was the primary reason why he holds the record for most unified bantamweight title bouts in boxing history. Even when his opponent was able to take away its best use, Olivares was able to adapt it to open up other opportunities to land meaningful punches. Olivares’ ability to combine the versatility of this weapon with his legendary stopping power to both the head and the body made him one of the most dangerous bantamweights in history.