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Overview & When to Use
The cross drives through the center of the guard, and the hook catches the opponent's lateral reaction to the straight punch. Canelo Alvarez has made this his primary counter sequence, using the slip-outside position as the natural launching pad for a pre-loaded cross.
When to use
Use primarily as a counter combination after slipping outside a jab, when your rear hand is naturally loaded from the slipping motion and the opponent is still extended. Also effective when the opponent has been conditioned to expect your jab first and drops their guard timing to counter it.
Common Mistakes
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- Leading with the 2-3 cold from long range without any setup or counter opportunity, which makes the cross predictable and easy to time since the opponent expects punches to begin with the jab.
- Throwing the hook wide and loopy after the cross, losing the tight arc needed for the hook to land clean and exposing your chin on the lead side during the extended swing.
- Not rotating the hips fully on the cross, which reduces the power of the lead punch and fails to create the rotational loading needed for a powerful follow-up hook.
Pro Tips
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- The 2-3 is best used after slipping outside a jab — the slipping motion naturally loads your rear hand, and the opponent is still extended forward, making the counter cross almost automatic.
- Canelo Alvarez uses the 2-3 as his primary counter sequence — study how he times the slip to load the cross and uses the hook to catch opponents who try to recover from the straight punch.
- Alternate the hook's target systematically: hook to the head one time, hook to the body the next, preventing the opponent from settling into a predictable guard adjustment after the cross.
Conditioning Drills
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- Double-End Bag: Practice slipping the rebound and immediately firing the 2-3 counter, 3 rounds of 3 minutes building timing and reactive counter-punching.
- Heavy Bag: 3 rounds of 3 minutes focusing on the seamless rotational flow from the cross into the hook, ensuring zero pause between punches.
- Shadowboxing: 3 rounds of 3 minutes practicing the slip-to-2-3 motion, visualizing an incoming jab, slipping outside, and countering with the loaded cross-hook.
Q1 of 3
Which of these is a common mistake when performing The 2-3 (Cross-Hook)?