Rank the best jabbers: Larry Holmes, Thomas Hearns, Ike Quartey

When people think of great jabbers the first fighters to come to mind are Holmes, Hearns, and Quartey. All 3 of them had elite level jabs but how would you rank them in order with the first being the very best jabber out of the lot?

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Larry’s jab was the most versatile. He could change speed, rhythm, trajectory, and power seamlessly and effortlessly. He was unbelievably skilled with it. He set people up perfectly with it to disguise the timing of his right hands. He could do everything with it that you’d want in a jab.

Hearns’ was an extremely skillful operator with his jab. If you can outfence the great Sugar Ray Leonard from distance and force him to change his strategy, you are a special, special fighter. It was ridiculously fast and long. A combination that you rarely see. It was the ultimate range finder. He completely befuddled Duran with his jab. Using body jabs to get his hands down to try to parry it and then coming down with his missile of a right hand.

Ike Quartey had a great jab, too. You have to if 90% of your game centers around that punch. But I feel it gets just slightly overrated among all-time great jabs because of how frequently he used it. Using it more than another fighter doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better than his.

So, I would go Holmes, Hearns, and then Quartey.

 

I agree with this order
Some other great jabbers in no order
Sonny Liston
Joe Louis
Tommy Loughran
Arbachakov
Lopez
Hill
Monzon
Wlad
Hagler
I know there's more but drawing a blank now

 

Man that's hard. Larry because it was still a major weapon even when he was in his forties.
Quartey might have the strongest.

 

The speed, power, accuracy in all 3 of their jabs made them dangerous to deal with. I personally think that Holmes has the best jab all-round while Hearns and Quartey are interchangeable. Although I think you can make a case in any order no matter how you rank them.

 

There is this and all others who are vying for second place...

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This was Wlad at his best IMO.

 

It's between Larry and Tommy for me. Can't really choose. I was originally going to give the nod to Larry for how versatile it is and how he used it to gain success even when he came back older and less mobile in the 90s. But Tommy also did the same when he went up in weight classes, where his jab was one of his keys to victory against bigger men like Vergil Hill.

One of the best showcases of a battle of jabs imo

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Pernell has an all-time jab.
Ali has an all-time jab.
I've always felt that Pep and Benny Leonard's jabs deserve more credit.

 

I actually like Hearns jab better than almost anyones. It is possibly the most multi faceted jab i have ever seen. Firstly he has so much reach and range, which was allied to great handspeed and really decent pop. It was used in a variety of ways, to pile up points (e.g.Benitez), to bust a guy up, to keep a guy off, to blindside a guy and measure for a right hand (Duran) and he used it both to the head and body. You could write an article on it. It's insane that he could beast a guy like Duran with jab feints and even eye feints in their short clash.

Even past prime and all the way up at 175 he easily matched jabs with a renowned jabber in Hill while expanding his offense off it to seal victory.

 

I'm not sure how to rank them but I will say that Holmes and Quartey were far more relient on the jab that Hearns. Don't get me wrong, Hearns jab was every bit as good but Tommy was more versatile with combinations and of course, that right hand.

Ike and Larry's entire offense was based off of the jab. Larry's set up all of his punches and controlled distance while Ike's jab hurt people and pushed them backwards. I loved watching all three but that power jab of Quartey was my favorite to watch. Without that punch, Quartey is just a guy.

 

Seamus named Wladimir.

I'll bring up this great jabmaster:

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Up to the reading of this post, I was quite happy to go with the default 'Larry Holmes' option. But, yeah, Hearns' jab is really up there.

So, it's difficult to separate those two really, for mine.

 

Carl Williams, Sammy Mandell,Willie Pep?

 

Most definitely on the list