Non-Greats Who Possesed Great Skill

People marvel at the skill sets of great fighters like Pernell Whitaker, Muhammad Ali, Ricardo Lopez, Roberto Duran, Floyd Mayweather, Jose Napoles, James Toney. They were all at one time complete fighters or damn near it, and possessed the combined attributed needed to be great.

My question is, what fighters who for whatever reason weren't great fighters, still possessed great skills? It may have been because of a lack of longevity, durability issues, a weak resume, poor exposure. Anything really.

Another question to float out there... who was the "worst" fighter you've ever seen who you would still categorize as possessing elite skills in the ring?

I'd love some obscure shout outs and discussion. A fighter of course doesn't necessarily need to of been a world champion or ever even gained much exposure to of obviously been very talented.

As far as active fighters go, Jorge Linares is about as smooth and skillful a fighter as you'll see anywhere but the very lowest weight classes. His fragile skin, none the less his iffy durability, have hampered him as much as it has any fighter. He cuts up in the worst of ways, like a latter career Jose Napoles or John Conteh.

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I also think Denis Shafikov possesses unbelievable skills in the ring. I haven't seen a fighter sit in the pocket and slip under punches like that in years. He's only 5'5 but routinely out jabs and imposes himself on fighters who are up to a half foot taller than him. Check out his brutal deconstruction of teak tough Rustam Nugaev.

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Thanks, trying to contribute a bit and get some discussion going.

I love how Linares has gotten his career together, improbably, after more than one big career setback. A good example of a fighter learning and continuing after shortcomings in the ring. He's a three weight world champion now, isn't he?

 

Great pick, actually. Spinks is somehow who, despite having no real great physical attributes, thrived on purely his skills for quite a long time.

Fans may forget he took on, and beat, Ricardo Mayorga back when he was still a real danger man in the sport, fresh off his two wins over Vernon Forrest.

 

Just checked out Spink's resume, he had 347 total rounds in his career. 40 shy of Mayweather's 387. If you have those many rounds in the ring with the kind of good opposition Spink's shared the ring with, chances are you're probably a pretty good fighter.

 

Do you know who trained him (If anyone notable) if he had notable sparring partners for years...? He was a very skilled fighters for a period of years and befuddled almost everyone, and fighters like that are usually products of their environment. Rumored issues with alcohol and the party lifestyle seem to of completely derailed his career.

 

Navaez was a joy to watch, and it's a shame he toiled in relative obscurity for so many years. Many fans exposure to him will probably be seeing him as an obscure name on the resumes of much larger and younger fighters he had no place in the ring with at that time. When watching him I'm reminded of Nicolino Locchea a bit.

I believe Navaez was the only person to beat Joan Guzma between 96' and 2012. Guzman himself was a wickedly smooth operator who could seemingly clown world class opposition much like Gamboa was doing a few years ago.

 

Mind if I ask you why you have that stance on Calderon? Not that I disagree with it, I've seen others echo the sentiment. I wasn't quite watching boxing consistently when he was really doing his thing. I remember watching both his fights with Segura and his final fight against Fuentes, though that obviously isn't nearly representative of what he could do.

 

By the way, feel free to mention just about anyone, quality isn't really a defining factor here. Skill is.

There are probably numerous fighters who never progressed beyond a Friday Night Fight level in their entire career but we still wickedly skillful.