The least athletically gifted champion ever?

Baldomir surely?

Old foreman is a good shout.

 

While this is all relative of course because you don't get to be champion without having natural gifts to get you there (there's a ton of guys who work just as hard and never get that far), the first guy I thought of was Carlos Baldomir.

 

Ross was highly athletically gifted.

 

these fringe belts and stuff make the modern guys too easy to pick on: Luevano (no speed, no power, no coordination, just kind of knew how to box a bit and was tall and awkward), Caballero (awkward, can't box, hits kind of hard, just tall), and Maussa (awkward, hit hard, wouldn't be allowed in an amatuer gym), and finally then guys like Harris who just fold under pressure all qualify as pretty garbage champs, never would have held belts in the 40s-60s unless its like that Lamotta fixed fight.

 

Gene Fullmer.

 

huh all those guys I listed are kind of tall for their weight class - maybe that length let them get around their athletic short comings.

 

Agreed. The only reason Baldomir got my vote is that he actually was the unified and lineal champ. Otherwise Gavin Rees would've gotten my vote.

 

Joey Maxim

 

He looked like Muhammad Ali next to Bob Murphy and Freddie Mills though.

 

Marciano was one of the most gifted fighters in any division to ever enter the ring. There are few correlatives to his combination of size, power and stamina. And you might argue that he trained harder than anyone, but I doubt that more than a few heavies were ever gifted enough to keep up with Marciano in training. Sometimes talent begets training.

I think people have a preconception of what "natural talent" is in boxing.. i.e. Mayweather, Robinson, Jones Jr, very talented guys of course but of a narrow type. Power, strength, stamina, coordination, balance, flexibility, work rate are other factors to consider.

I am surprised no one has mentioned Ali yet. He is certainly up there.