What's Your Favourite Tall Man Style? ?

You know the type of fighter I mean; tall, long arms, and usually very skinny. Most guys with a build like this - especially at lower weights where packing on weight is usually made to be a disadvantage - are taught to use their feet, long arms and frame to keep distance, control the range and take the opportunities opponents provide as they try to get closer. A great tall fighter will figure out the range where he can hit his opponents and they can't hit him, and lean on them when they can. Guys like this which immediately jump to my mind are Wlad, Monzon, Hopkins at times, and to a much much lesser degree, guys like Okolie, Carnera, Ottke or Maske.

But obviously this is not the only way tall fighters have fought throughout history. Robinson, Ike Williams, Spinks, Foster, Hearns, Arguello, Morales, Pedroza, Lewis, Vitali, Joshua, etc.

So I pose the question in the title, what's your favourite tall man style?

 

Tommy Hearns and Alexis Arguello are two of my favorite fighters of all time, and they imo best represent two certain tall man styles.

Tommy's style with his mobility and handspeed is more akin to guys like Ali and Robinson. Guys who utilize their supreme athletic gifts to complement their height and reach. While Arguello is more similar to guys like Louis and Monzon, fighters who were more methodical in their approach to breaking their opponents down while fighting tall.

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Tall guys that either like to knock you out or throw hands such as Thomas Hearns, Alexis Arguello, Carlos Zarate, Felix Trinidad, Erik Morales, Bob Foster, Paul Williams, Raul Perez, Antonio Esparragoza, Louie Espinoza. Most recently we've had guys like Junto Nakatani, Rafael Espinoza and Sebastian Fundora.

 

My holy grail for this style would be Holmes Hearns Arguello.

 

Svennie Ottke was rather short for a Super Middleweight. He's more of an example of a short in&out boxer who can effectively box even against taller opponent due to his excellent footwork.

Maybe because I'm not that tall myself, lanky fighters are rarely among my favorites to watch, but if I had to name some, it would not be classic, disciplined technicians like say Postol or Maske - but rather guys who are more versatile and the puncher types that can use their long arms to attack the body with whipping uppercuts and hooks. Guys like Pelenchin Caballero and Hatchett Brewer for example.
It's maybe not the most effective tall-men style, but it's fun to watch.

 

Bob Foster

 

Sandy Saddler

 

Ah! You took my pick, I left him out of the OP.

Great mention.

 

Hearns against Benitez is truly Exhibit A for a fighter using his height and reach properly. He kept Benitez on the end of his arms nearly the entire fight. Wilfred was just unable to reach him for the most part, coming up short consistently.

 

I like Vitali because he was sooo good in the pocket, using his rising jab and chopping overhands to keep working all night, while using body sway and his height to make the other guy miss by fractions.

 

At 5ft 11ins, Panama Al Brown is both the tallest ever ranked Flyweight contender and Bantamweight champion. Incredibly, he must also be up there as the tallest ever Featherweight contender.

There's not enough footage for to describe his style as my favourite ever, but I like what I see here -

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Very true, Vitali is one of the only guys I've seen with a kickboxing background, who managed to fight in boxing with a kickboxing type of style; in fact, I think heretically, there's stuff in kickboxing and Muay Thai which is very applicable to boxing and underused on the whole.

Vitali is a great pick tho.

 

Definitely a great pick. I actually watched this highlight about 2 hours ago while thinking of all the Panamanian guys with their weird tall style. Zapata, Pedroza and Laguna are the best at them, but it seems to be a thing which can stems from Al Brown.

Also, the book Black Ink about Al Brown is great, well worth a read for anyone.

 

Since someone mentioned Vitali, I have to bring up Wladimir. While he lacked Vitali’s unorthodox movement, he might be the most effective tall man to ever lace them up.

He had arguably the best 1-2 and range-finding jab in heavyweight history. He excelled at keeping opponents at the end of his reach and if they did manage to breach his danger zone, he was a master at tying them up and leaning on them to sap their energy. It wasn't always flashy or exciting but it was a an excellent blueprint for how a tall man can use his physical attributes to completely dominate and control their opponent.