old footage of monkey boxer li goushi at 1928 lei tai competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeoLqus4CB0
old footage of monkey boxer li goushi at 1928 lei tai competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeoLqus4CB0
Rumors about some of Rashaad's training are that he has trained in the deadly art of 52 blocks.
"God gave you a brain, and it annoys Him greatly when you choose not to use it."
Well, your thread got hijacked in the worst way. Par for course.
I watched the fight, and I can see what you are saying. Rashad stays low and fast, feigns a few punches and then hits the takedown. It has done him wonders in his last two fights. In both of those fights he was rocked by a solid punch, but won convincingly because of his low fast takedowns.
No, not any Monkey in the style I train. But Rashad looks like he trained in it. His Octagon entrance, his 'feints' and then rush.
My instructor was/is a monkey specialist in his northern kung fu. In our southern systems we use a lot of monkey. Almost all of our throws are monkey based. In addition we use a lot of movements similar to Rashad's. Obviously, it is something that you have to have some conventional fighting skill to go with, but it does seem to add a dimension to our game. It is really helpful against Uber orthodox systems like JKD. They think that anything with flash doesn't work so they ignore it in their training.
Now that it is out and in public, many people who say that they practice and learn the style attribute it to early defensive black boxers like Jack Johnson. If you read about 52 blocks from about 5 years ago there was only one person talking about it on the forums who claimed to know it and it was an art shown ONLY to black people after they had shown themselves trustworthy and that the art was created by slaves and was created for fighting in close while wearing shackles. The art had been passed on in secret since before the Civil War and was only known to certain people who also kept it secret.
Do I buy that it was/is a progressive self-defense art mixing boxing with other tricks and tactics that are found to be effective on the street? Yep
Do I buy the other history of it that it was created and passed on in complete secrecy to only a select few people and no one ever showed anything? Nope
Sorry, for the highjack, but it was related to the question of what Rashaad Evans uses. Here is the link where Evans talks about 52 Blocks.
http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma....ail&gid=111673
As far as monkey footwork, 52 Blocks was also influenced by Caporeria (sp?) which has low acrobatic footwork included.
"God gave you a brain, and it annoys Him greatly when you choose not to use it."