P4p who had the greatest jab of all time. a lot of factors can play into a great jab like power, speed, reach, precision and fluency. IMHO I think Sonny Liston had the best jab for a HW but p4p I don’t know if he keeps his crown.
Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali, Wladimir Klitschko and Joe Louis may have something to say about that, not to mention guys like Gene Tunney.
Ken Buchanan, Miguel Canto, Oscar De La Hoya, Ike Quartey, Mas Oba, Gilberto Roman Imagine seeing Ohba and Canto jab it out? Mmmm, chocolate. Roman Gonzalez has a very beautiful jab.
I'm going to go with Larry Holmes as it was such a great jab and a formidable weapon it allowed him to box WAY past his prime and still win. Southpaw Winky Wright or Pea. Winky did s paint job on Felix and Pea did one on Nelson.
P4p? Hearns at welter. Taking p4p out of it, the obvious, a certain dude from Easton. It was so fast and hit hard. He had a way of being able to smash it right through an opponent's guard. Even as an old man, it was still great. Shavers, in his book, described Larry's jab as a ramrod that hit so fast he couldn't see it coming, and that hit as hard as a right.
Once a jab is established as being great by reasonable majority. it’s not easy picking out the actual best one from the pool of “great”. The criteria you cited is spot on and then there is different weightings you can give for each of those categories for a sum total. Foreman gains BIG on the power aspect but might lose a bit relatively on some other features. Across the board, Liston is a more than fair candidate. IMO, Louis gets high points in all departments also but Louis didn’t use his jab as much as he should’ve in some fights and in that one regard, a guy like Sonny might gain a better rating. Also, some guys will use a particular punch a lot more than any other because it’s their best punch by far. That, in itself, by sheer usage will lend to a perception of higher quality of the punch and it’s effectiveness. Joe Frazier was stamped by the almost singular use of his great left hook. Hypothetically, someone might possess the same left hook but not employ it to the degree Joe did so Frazier’s left could be reasonably calculated as the greater punch. Ali had a great jab, perfectly integrated into his arsenal otherwise. But though he jabbed a lot, Ali didn’t just jab exclusively, having many other educated punches to unleash also, his jab being a beautiful set up for same. At least at HW (Hearns is a great choice for lower weights and perhaps best P4P) Holmes’ jab probably provides for the best argument. Larry deserves very high ratings in all categories even though other fighters might rate higher in certain other individual categories but Larry wins on sum total. Holmes probably relied on his jab nearly as much as Frazier did on his left hook. They were like savants,, relative to the use and effectiveness of their single, choice punch. I could perhaps argue for Ali’s left jab being equal if not better, however, Ali had many other shots he employed. Larry has to rate higher just for the fact that he used his jab far more than even Ali did thereby gaining greater advantage from that single punch. As such, Larry’s jab almost seemed like almost a separate entity to the boxer it was attached to - a punch that absolutely defined Holmes’ application of himself.