Rate Liston's Jab

Liston had the most powerful jab, in effectiveness second only to Holmes.

 

Excellent post. So it seems Liston is your pick via process of elimination?

 

No pressure or anything Pug

 

I think Pinklon Thomas had a Top 10 jab, possibly Top 5. He completely dominated Tim Spoon like no other before him and befuddled Mike Tyson from the 2nd round on. And Tyson hadn't been bothered by a jab like that, up to that point.

 

Not.....necessarily.

 

None taken.

 

Excuse me?

 

You’re excused.

 

Silly me. That spot must be reserved for Williams! How could I have forgotten?

 

Well, that goes without saying - that’s why I didn’t.

It’s a travesty that a radio button wasn’t provided to select Cleveland. This poll is fraudulent.

 

You can't rate jabs in a linear metric because every fighter uses them differently. Liston's jab was a power jab, used to bust through defences, push opponents back and stun them for follow up shots. It was too slow and a bit one dimensional to be used for anything more sophisticated than that, not that it needed to be for Liston's style.

You can compare it to jabs from fighters like Foreman, Bruno, Mercer, Joyce etc, but not to fighters like Ali, Holmes, Wlad etc.

 

Interesting. Might have to edit my above post once I watch that vid.

 

Regarding Foreman's jab, at least in his first career, he did not use it consistently. He utilized it beautifully against Norton and Frazier. Not so much Ali. Though this may have been because Ali had enraged Foreman and thrown him off of his game. Post-Ali his jab still looked visually good, but that's just it. It may have looked good but it wasn't the powerful weapon it used to be. Post-Ali, Clancy tried to change Foreman's stance and body mechanics. He made Foreman bring his feet to close together, which prevented Foreman from utilizing all of his power and left him off balance quite a bit (perhaps never more apparent in the 7th round against Young when he had him ready to go), his jab also became notably weaker and though it still looked good, it was more or less just there, when before it was a beautiful weapon that could stun and stagger very durable ATGs such as Frazier. The first time it was very noticeable was against Dino Denis.

In his bout with Young I also noticed his jab was less "mobile" for lack of a better term, as he'd mostly throw it while standing still, instead of walking in with his weight behind the jab, which he did beautifully against Norton.

 

Not gonna lie, I did a double take when I realized Williams wasn't in the poll.

 

Young George progressively fell away from some good fundamentals already in place early in his career.

Obviously his departure from some basics was in deference to his fight ending power - which might’ve seemed a blessing initially but ultimately a curse in disguise if the quick KO didn’t necessarily manifest.

His use of the jab vs Chuvalo was probably the best example for him in his first career - and stands up well to his second career at any rate.

It was jarring and hurtful in its own right and really set up George well to land his even more powerful punches.

Seriously, from opening bell, Chuvalo barely got a chance to breathe in the face of Foreman’s well metered, methodical offensive.

A nice poster fight for George imo, along with, of course, the Frazier and Norton fights.