The Finest Finishers in Boxing History

Surely Dempsey needs consideration?

People need to give up on Ali, he simply is about 5 levels lower than the All time greats in this category.

Joe Louis was simply the best finisher Boxing has ever seen.

Robinson wasnt bad too.

 

Tito was already mentioned but he's one of them. Tyson of course was a tremendous finisher. DLH wasn't a bad finisher either.

Was there any particularly awful finishers though? Guys who couldn't seal the deal no matter HOW HARD they tried?

 

Roy Jones sometimes struggled to get rid of some of his mediocre opponents

 

I'm guessing you mean young pre-Watson Eubank, as the post-Watson version didn't even try to finish guys off, he was (understandably) very gunshy. Young mw Eubank really was a magnificent fighter IMO. Good call mate.

Hopkins is a very interesting choice. I am a massive B-Hop fan as you know and he was a very good finisher in his younger and slightly more aggressive days, but I am a little surprised he was mentioned in a discussion of the very finest finishers in history. Then again, the craft of his stoppage of Trinidad and the brutality of his stoppage of Lipsey do show a fighter with well-rounded and varied finishing skills.

I think the young mw/smw James Toney was a very good finisher. I don't think he was on the same level as a Ray Leonard exactly, but he seemed to have a gift for producing a definitive punch or attack at the crucial moment. His knockouts of Nunn and Prince Charles Williams, the way he crushed Tim Littles, even the KD of Jirov in his older days (OK, not exactly a 'finish', but a definitive attack which sealed the victory), he did have a good ability to conclusively end a fight in his favour. JMO.

In a very different way, Manny Pacquiao is a quality finisher. His relentless threshing attacks as soon as he has his opponent in trouble look very very difficult to survive. The guy is merciless, as Barrera and Morales would testify. Then again, JMM has survived 4 KD's at the hands of the Pacman, so maybe he lacks a certain poise that the truly great finishers possess.

Lennox Lewis was a great finisher when he wanted to be (Ruddock, Golota, Rahman II etc), but he could be over-cautious at times and not produce a finish when it was there for the taking, Holyfield I being a prime example.

 

Can you think of anyone who was a poor finisher? Someone who often failed to find the killer blow? I may be wrong, but I'm sure I remember Winky Wright having a guy or two out on their feet and just not having that last push in him to end the fights.

 

Roy Jones Jr. was good finisher. See his fight with Pazienza.

 

Jermain Taylor.

IMO, if he had known a little bit more about 'the finish,' words like 'exposed' and 'over-rated' would have been tossed around in the same sentence as Pavlik.

And both careers would have headed in different directions.


All because of how Jermain failed to capitalize during a 10 -20 second period.

 

When Louis had a man hurt, that was usually the end of him.

Of fighters that I've seen:


Duran
Pryor
Leonard
Tyson
Abraham


all have (had) an instinct that came to the fore when they smelled weakness.

I don't recall Oscar letting anyone off the hook either.

 

I think Alexis' great talent for finishing was that he always knew how much pressure to apply in a situation. He could read the strength and durability of a fighter beautifully. Sometimes it wouldn't matter, because he would just find the perfect moment out of nowhere and the other guy would be on their back staring at the lights before they ever realized they were in trouble, (see Kevin Rooney, Billy Costello, etc) but at other time he seemed to have a sixth sense for what to do and when.

From what I've seen my favorite example is the fight with Mancini. Arguello's corner sent him in looking for an early KO, but Arguello knew right away that wasn't going to work. So instead he pulled back, slowly wore Mancini down, and then just began to crush Boom-Boom in the late rounds before the fight was finally stopped. (And anyone who has seen the combo that ended the fight remembers how it was both brutally effective and beautifully precise).

One thing is for sure: if there's one place you didn't want to be in a fight, it was in the championship rounds with Arguello when he felt that he could put you away.