Jack Slack

Jack Slack is a pen name of an anonymous British freelance writer, podcaster, analyst and amateur historian of combat sport; most notable as a mixed martial arts (MMA) striking analyst, writing detailed, analytical breakdowns of fighters, fighting techniques and strategies, using videos, photos and animated GIFs.

Slack formerly wrote regularly for BloodyElbow.com, Bleacher Report, Vice Sports and Unibet. Due to successful Patreon support, he independently writes on his blog ''FightPrimer.com'' and bi-weekly broadcasts ''Jack Slack Podcast'' (formerly named ''Fights Gone By'' (FGB) podcast) on YouTube.

Background

Slack describes himself as “a martial arts fanatic from the U.K. who got involved in karate very young, then boxing, then most recently jiu-jitsu". Initially he started researching and writing for his own training improvement in order to compensate for his "shortcomings in his own physicality", and later, by motivation to showcase to the casual fan and the mainstream media how MMA is a highly skillful art form.

In a 2012 AMA, Slack wrote "I've been analysing techniques since I realised that coaches couldn't or wouldn't tell me everything they knew or even what they most liked doing themselves. I knew there had to be more to it than just the same basic techniques performed at the opponent so I started watching boxing. When I started in boxing in my early teens I loved scrapping but I couldn't stand watching a boxing match - watching guys like Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jersey Joe Walcott soon improved me so much that I couldn't stop watching old fights."

Slack's pen name is a reference to Jack Slack the "Norfolk Butcher", the 1743 Norfolk boxing champion who defeated famed English boxing champion Jack Broughton in 1750 as a heavy underdog and remained undefeated as champion until 1760. Slack has said that he does not particularly admire the man, whose life was "more than a little shady", but that the name has "a ring to it".

Anonymity

In a post on ''mixedmartialarts.com'' forum in June 2013, Slack explained his reason for his anonymity: "Only reason I haven't done any video podcasts or anything is because I like being able to train without the pressure of being that guy from the internet. I wouldn't want to do an instructional video - all my content is about what great fighters do! I'm absolutely nothing special in personal ability".

Historical European martial arts (HEMA) writer Peter Smallridge wrote in June 2016 "and while Slack explains his anonymity as the result of his personal lack of athleticism and competitive record tarnishing his analytic reputation, his understanding is top notch."

Career

Slack's first public contribution to analysing striking came in the form of sharing passages from published authors from his book collection. The first one posted on ''MMASHARE'' forum August 2011 titled ''Jimmy Wilde - The Art of Boxing''. From January 2012 onwards he started to write and publish his analytical breakdown on his newly opened blog ''FightsGoneBy'', while promoting his articles on major MMA forums and gaining popularity.

In January 2012 he started using the pen name ''Jack Slack'', submitting ''Fanposts'' regularly to SB Nation's websites Bloodyelbow.com (MMA) and the now defunct HeadKickLegend.com (kickboxing), and also writing an article for CagePotato. In April 2012, Slack's article was first published on ''BloodyElbow'' front page, and soon he became a stipend author for the website. In that same month he was interviewed by sports announcer and commentator Mauro Ranallo on ''The MMA Show'' radio podcast. From July 2012 onwards he focused his writing on more popular fighters in order to increase his readership.

In March 2013 Slack was hired to write regularly for Bleacher Report; initially as a featured columnist and later as "Lead MMA Analyst".https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/jack-slack/88/796/568

The editor of Fightland contacted Slack and offered him a position as a writer. Though Slack's initial intention was to write two articles a month for ''Fightland'' while continuing writing regularly for Bleacher Report, which he started doing from November 2013, on March 31, 2014, Slack left Bleacher Report and was writing eight articles a month only for ''Fightland''. Though a regular writer, Slack was not exclusive to ''Fightland'', and wrote articles for ''Fighters Only'' magazine and Unibet UK blog. Slack is known for his use of animated GIFs in his articles. Moving to ''Fightland'' allowed Slack to embed UFC parent company Zuffa's copyrighted fight footage in his articles.

In February 2019, Slack left ''Fightland'' and Vice Sport, and wrote regularly for Unibet.

Since July 2020, due to successful Patreon support, Slack writes independently on his blog ''Fightprimer.com''.

Podcaster

Since August 2016, Slack is the host of ''Fights Gone By'' (FGB) podcast, (now the Jack Slack Podcast) which he independently finances via Patreon.

Book author

Slack has written and self-published four ebooks:
* ''Elementary Striking: Strategies for Boxing, Kickboxing and MMA'' (2012)
* ''Advanced Striking: Tactics of Kickboxing, Boxing and MMA Masters'' (2012)
* ''Fighting Karate'' (2014)
* ''Finding the Art: Essays on the Principles, Tactics and Techniques Which Govern Combat Sports'' (2015)
And one printed book (published by John Blake Books):
* ''Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor'' (2017)

Striking analysis

While Slack is known for analyzing MMA fighters, he has also published articles on professional boxing such as ''Pulling Back the Curtain on Muhammad Ali'', on Kickboxing such as ''The Finest Striker on the Planet: Giorgio Petrosyan'', on Muay Thai such as ''Eight Limbs: The Masters of Each Strike in MMA'', on Karate such as ''Glory 19: Why Karate Doesn't Work in the Ring'', on Wing Chun such as ''Wing Chun and MMA: Controlling the Center'', articles on the history of martial arts such as ''Interpreting the Bubishi: One Thousand Pounds Falls to the Ground''. and critical articles such as ''Wushu Watch: Lessons to learn from Aikido''. He has also published semi satirical articles such as ''Star Trek: The illogical fighting style of James T. Kirk'' and ''Street Fighter in the UFC: Hadoukens and Izuna drops''. Slack also published articles about fighting techniques in the Animal Kingdom such as ''Jack Slack: Street Fighting Roos''.

Slack has stated in his July 2014 article ''Jack Slack: Four Strikers That Every MMA Fan Should Be Watching'': "Top level grappling, boxing and Muay Thai are light years ahead technically of what we see in mixed martial arts competition, but progress in MMA is shockingly rapid."

On ''FGB'' podcast #212 (July 2020) Slack has criticised the current state of Women's MMA (WMMA) on the following points:
 
* Most WMMA is missing an “alive element” that a fight should have because they fight like they're hitting pads and not actually in a fight, meaning both women punching like they're hitting pads while disregarding any strikes coming back at them.
* Most WMMA striking involves a series of repetitive combinations that don't change or evolve as the fight goes on.
* They throw multi punch combinations head first, not thinking about counter strikes.
* Just because you can pump hands doesn't mean you're a good puncher/striker for example Ronda Rousey.
* Eye vs Calvillo displayed that movement is key in a fight, and if they just stand in front of each other, it's gonna be the same exchange over and over again.
Slack stated that good striking comes from not only hitting pads, but also faking out the opponent, anticipation and expectations of the opponent, going high and low, body language, trickery, etc. As good examples, Slack praised Rose Namajunas and Valentina Shevchenko because they understand movement and building combinations is key to good striking.

Slack's popular series of articles titled ''Killing the King'', which break down the current UFC champions weaknesses, and how they could potentially be beat, have spanned through four different MMA websites during his career: ''BloodyElbow.com'', ''Bleacher Report, Fightland'' and ''FightPrimer.com''

Slack lists former MMA Heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko as the top striker on the feet and on the ground, in MMA history. He has published a three part article series titled ''Analyzing Fedor''.

Slack has stated that to him the "striking bible" is the 1940 book ''Boxing'' by boxing coach Edwin L. Haislet and that the "grappling bible" is the 2008 book ''Jiu-jitsu University'' by Saulo Ribeiro. Slack's favourite book of all time is the 1975 book The Fight by Norman Mailer. All in all, between 2016 and 2017 on ''FGB'' podcast, Slack has recommended 41 various books to read which have been compiled by his fans as a list named "Jack Slack's reading list" on Goodreads.

According to Slack, the 2003 film Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior starring Tony Jaa; "is perhaps the finest martial arts movie of this generation", and that Tony Jaa's multiple attackers scene in the 2005 film Tom-Yum-Goong (The Protector); " sthe best fight in movie history".

Reception

Matt Saccaro of CagePotato describes Slack as "by far the greatest assessor of in-cage techniques that has graced the keyboard", and Ben Fowlkes of MMAjunkie describes Slack's work as existing "in that rare sports writing space where the reader comes away with a better understanding of the sport itself, rather than merely the people in it". Mike Johnston of Sportsnet wrote "There aren’t many people on the planet better capable of analyzing a fighter’s strengths, weaknesses and evolution than Jack Slack".

Joel Snape

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