Who's the best counter puncher you've ever seen?

Great video and post.

Medel was an expert at the very risky 'right cross with the opponents right cross' counter, which he used to brutalise Harada (ala your video) and McGowan. Like you said, he threw directly at the line of fire for surprising power. Julio Cesar Chavez and Salvador Sanchez were also both brilliant at slipping and throwing their right cross with the opponent too (Chavez vs Rosario and Taylor and Sanchez vs Nelson for some examples). For current fighters, Inoue is pretty good at it too (see Maloney bout).

 

Johnny Idrisano

 

Damn near EVERY great fighter.
It's almost a prerequisite.
Best I've seen? Napoles, Benitez,
May Jr. Leonard, Willo the "Wisp"
Louis, Ali. A Nelson , Robinson
Frazier is severely underrated
Pedroza, Sanchez, Camacho in his prime.
Chavez ,Monzon of course Duran etc,etc,etc
as I said at the beginning of this, almost
a prerequisite for greatness,
Don't forgot Jones Jr, Qawi on, on, and on.......
Can't think of one the last few yrs though.
Boxing has turned into you punch I block (Not slip)
but block, I punch you block (But not parry, or ride)
Great countering like body punching is hard to find
in the today's game.
Don't forget, Pac, Trinidad, Whitaker etc,etc,etc.
Hagler in his prime?

 

Barney Ross always made it a point to have the last word in any exchange.

 

One of the best examples of counter punching I ever saw was that put on by Goyo Vargas against Paul Hodkinson to win the featherweight title. I thought we had the new Salvador Sanchez.

Of course, he lost the crown in his first defence but that doesn't mean the display against Hoko was any less impressive. That he could not repeat it was the reason he wasn't the next Salvador.

 

I miss the morlocks

 

Was just watching highlights of his fight with Petrolle and remarked this very thing to myself.

 

Same thing with the McLarnin and Garcia fights. I think it was a mantra for him. Whenever he was stung by a punch, he wasn't going to leave it alone. He was going to do everything he could to convince the judges and the fans that he was winning every exchange even if the first punches had been landed by his opponent. No clinching until his head cleared unless he was really, really hurt.

 

Haha - hard pressed to find a more comfortable ride when travelling back or forward in time.

A musing which probably has no hard and fast answer - certainly something that would have some variance from one individual to another - but would it be wrong or right to view effective counterpunching to be among the less “intuitive” styles for most prospective boxers - ?

Also, many of the great counter punchers also mix in a good measure of self initiated, proactive offence - while others might be more singularly minded counterpunchers who don’t throw a lot unless the complementary, opposing offence is launched at them.

At his most lackadaisical, Jack Johnson can be seen and read as doing very little at times during the course of a fight unless the opponent took the fight to him.

His prerogative but perhaps a bit boring - particularly when an opponent gets “burnt”’and then becomes gun shy advancing on the counter puncher - and the counter puncher won’t punch unless they come in - , a vicious, non-vicious circle. LOL.

 

I'm with you. Great bob and weave and counterpuncher. I say he might have been one of the greats. An undefeated, dominant champion, who had yet to reach his prime when he was killed behind the wheel.

 

Good shout. I was very impressed with Curry. Smooth as silk.The way he would just plant his feet, a slight feint with his head, then BAM!!. Benitez did that a lot. He beat some good fighters, such as Starling, and his demolition of Milton McRory in to unify the welterweight title was reminiscent of Leonard`s victory over Hearns. I was expecting great things from Curry, but he didn`t do well when he moved up the weight ladder, getting caught and I think KO`d by McAllum. And that aspect of his career is also reminiscent of Benitez.

 

Vargas looked so much stronger than Hodkinson, Hodkinson couldn't budge him at all.

Vargas had a very entertaining fight with Kevin Kelley aswell, unlucky lose that one.

 

Victor Galindez was a great counter puncher