ESPN Friday Night Fights is introducing a new series of video elements to help educate viewers on the various fundamentals of boxing. “Inside the Ropes,” in which ESPN boxing analyst Teddy Atlas demonstrates various boxing techniques and fundamentals, debuted on the January 30 edition of Friday Night Fights with Atlas demonstrating the fundamentals of the bump and run technique.
Throughout the course of the Friday Night Fights season, “Inside the Ropes” will be integrated throughout the show if a topic of discussion becomes a trend during a fight so as to give viewers a better understanding of what Atlas is describing. The video elements—which include demonstrations of the bump and run, jabbing from a proper distance, how to fight a southpaw, blocking the jab and more—were taped at the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y.
Matt Sandulli, ESPN senior coordinating producer explains how the idea came about:
“During a review of our 2014 telecasts there were certain boxing fundamentals that Teddy would consistently see and explain during the course of a show. So many of these situations lent themselves to great teaching opportunities by simply demonstrating the points he was making. We discussed it as group and decided to record 20-25 second demos that we could play between rounds to help drive home these points. We identified a list of the most common points that come up during a telecast and then secured the International Boxing Hall of Fame as our location to tape these demonstrations. We now have a great library of elements to help expand the knowledge of our viewers.”
