Underrated technicians?

Manny Pacquiao
Kid Gavilan
Victor Galindez
Roberto Duran
George Foreman
Sandy Saddler
Vicente Saldivar
Fighting Harada
Tommy Hearns
Jose Medel
Ruben Olivares

Essentially, any puncher or overly aggressive fighter with good skills could qualify.

 

Golovkin for one. Everybody thinks he's a slugger. He's not. He's a boxer with heavy hands.

Roland LaStarza for another. I rewatched Marciano 2 and I was quite impressed with his technical ability. Not bad at all and I think he'd give quite a few guys issues. People forget him because he got his cakehole stomped.

 

I like your pick of Big George - he gets crapped on in here, as if he's just some big dummy that anybody with movement and a chin could beat.

George could look crude, but he has excellent ring cutting ability, good balance as he moves, ATG jab, throws hooks and uppercuts in decent combination, catches jabs with parries and knows how to manipulate his opponents balance and create punching room.

Many a HW don't make it past prime George before he met Ali.

I think Duran's skillset has been highlighted enough for most honest afficionados to recognise that he is the topmost tier for boxing skills as an offensive technician. I would venture to say that he arguably holds the greatest reportoire of infighting skillset that can be seen on film.

 

Aaron Pryor
Julio Cesar Chavez
Dwight Muhammad Qawi

 

Stevie Johnston
Buddy McGirt
Reggie Johnson
Jeff Chandler
Kennedy Mckinney
Hedgemon Lewis
Brian Mitchell
Omar Narvaez

 

I can't believe I forgot him. Chucho Castillo is an incredible technician.

 

Sven Ottke, Cory Spinks, Joey Archer and Henry Maske were all outstanding technical fighters that lacked power but were excellent outside fighter's that were great at taking away an opponents strength.

I feel like they are underrated because not a lot of people like that style of boxing but there is no denying how talented those guys were.

 

Great point on Duran, I have followed his career since the Benny Heartes fight, and me and a million others only saw him as a slugger, took a long, long time before we came to realize what a superb craftsman he was, funny that keep well.

 

Haha. I took a similar approach. Rated him for his two handed power and body assault. But then as I got better and more skilled at my MMA training, I started to see and appreciate the under and overhooks, the bicep trapping, the head on chest, rolling, ducking and slipping punches at close range, followed up by brtual counters.

Duran's ability to trap a man's arm, stay protected with his body positioning from the other hand, whilst ripping him to shreds with short hooks and uppercuts is a thing of beauty. He would have made a great grappler and has a skillset that could transition well into lethwei, muay Thai and a fair few others.

I cannot overstate how much I admire Duran's skillset. In fact, when you hear casual opinions on him, I think I might concur with @George Crowcroft - he is limited too often to much less than what he is.

 

Here's one for actually 'underrated': Alfonso Zamora. Sure, he didn't try to win like a technician, but the fact Hernandez was able to refine a natural born puncher - brawler that much is testament to how good of a trainer he was. Awesome punch mechanics too.

Also, I'd mention Jose Legra. He caused trouble for anyone he fought with his weird but skilled style.

 

The definition of underrated is 'not rated or valued highly enough.' Some of the guys here are most definitely rated for their technique (some even overrated). It's just that they are forgotten or obscured to most people other than hardcore fans.

I would say Billy Petrolle fits the actual definition. I thought he showed some absolutely fantastic head movement and punch selection in the film against Ross. Impressive considering how aggressive he was.