Five most cultured left hands since 1970

Cultured would be about accuracy, variety, technical excellence rather than power or volume, though I am interested in punches that are thrown often and don't become predictable. Guy needs to have all the shots and variety within those shots to get on this list. I've went post-1970 because the job is to massive either, but feel free to add your own lists from any time period including forever. Okay, here's the names I feel inarguably belong on in a ten for that period, who should flesh out the list?

To keep things sane i'm going to limit it to about 3-4 minutes, hopefully no more than one round, for each guy and throw my eyes across what I see.


RICARDO LOPEZ
Lopez was the second name on my list when I made it up in my brains.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrAatA1HP-A[/ame]

3:30-6:33

I like this fight for this type of thing on account of the clash of styles, we get to see Lopez use his left on both the front and the back foot versus Varguez. In the above we can see a 4:38 uppercut as part of a right-lead left uppercut combo as the first really interesting use of the left paw, but throughout the first minute of the first round Lopez is peppering jabs on his opponent inspite of his never really coming to any kind of stop, he's using jabs on the hop to discourage an opponent and hoover up points. At 4:48 he uses a nice little short left when he finds himself drawn up on the inside, and he clears his decks with that punch too. At 5 minutes we get a hook-uppercut combination, and then a lazy jab-hook jab-hook going away. 5:25 a double left hook behind the ear, shortarm punches from almost inside. The only new combination this round is the lead left upppercut/left hook at 6:05, but Lopez delivers a whole lot more left-handed fun throughout that fight which might be his best left-handed display.

And all of these punches are being throw from varried angles at different times in a swarming opponents approach. It's already enough to make the poor batard's head spinning.





Juan Manuel Marquez
Shares a trainer with the above of course, and that makes sense when you know it.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxkGImrnmKw[/ame]

2:00-5:00

At 2:21 Marquez, "playing Diaz's game" throws three neat little hooks, landing one of them, and walks out. The hook is actually the least important left handed punch for Marquez in this fight, but he landed a lot of em and he threw more. Marquez sometimes uses this punch to run interference at the right range every bit as much as he uses the jab, which he also sometimes sits right down on like a power punch. In fact he throws that punch with power form right after, on his way back to the ropes and then out, you sometimes see Marquez come squarer with the jab, doesn't usually get him into trouble, although he was a little square for all his left hand punches against Pacquiao in round one fight one, a little more face first than usual. Anyway, the really flash stuff for Marquez begins now. At 2:30 he throws a jab that was 90% interference (has to be 100% interference to be a feint haha) and then a right (BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) uppercut followed by a perfect left uppercut. This was the key punch for this fight and rather typical of the left hand work he did which was all exceptional (but not exceptional for him). Immediatly behind those punches he throws a lead left uppercut followed by a straight right-hand. From here on in Marquez flows punches of that lead left-uppercut like it was a jab. I don't think enough has been made of this - I don't know that many fighters since Ezzard Charles were setting up compact combinations to this degree, off the uppercut.

2:40, long left jab followed by a retreat walking Diaz straight onto a jab, right hand and the final piece of the puzzle, a left dig to the body. Marquez now has the left working down the middle, on the outside to the body, splitting the guard and on the outside to head. That's as complete as you want to see.

Marquez jabs for a spell whilst Diaz wrestles for control of the fight but at 2:53 launches a left uppercut (body) left uppercut (head) left hook combination. Audacious combination. Now using the jab to hunt down the cut that he prevsiously caused with an uppercut, Marquez forces Diaz's guard apart for another easy uppercut at 3:46. With thirty seconds left in the round, Marquez hurts Diaz with a pot-shotting hook then uppercut and closes the show soon there-after, in a fight he could have won without his right on offence.


Miguel Canto
Better or worse left hand than Lopez?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBVXgCyN8BM[/ame]

2:00-4:15

This is one of the faster rounds these two fought and maybe the fastest that Canto won, if he won it. What Canto does very well in the first half of this round is mix up hook and jab leads so that Betulio isn't sure what's coming, the hook is beautifully disguised as a jab from the off. You can also see Canto feint like he is stepping in behind the jab and hooking instead and dipping like he's jabbing to the body instead jabbing at the head.

Canto continues to out-jab an opponent that out-reaches him, and check out the cheeky left hook he lands at 3:48. Now, zip the video back to 3:24. Canto feints with his feet and left hand. 3:28 he lands a standard jab. 3:34, 3:38, jab. 3:41, feint. 3:44, a jab that looks exactly like a completed version of the feint at 3:24 and 3:41. Now Betulio knows what is behind that feint - he thinks. Instead, Canto lands the hardest punch of the round, a left hook that also looks like the original feint. Betulio, who was trying to swap jabs with Canto at the time of the hook has basically now been feinted three times by one move thanks to Canto's variety and disguise, and yeah, Canto picks up that debt with interest later in the fight.

Subtle, subtle stuff from a master of that type of boxing control. Subtle too is the double left hook at 4:14, one coming in behind the same jab-feint, the other one up at the ear whilst going away. All these punches land. Gonzalez is utterly baffled about whether punches are going up or down, straight or wider. A classic example of a fighter ending a round knowing less about his opponent than when he began - and this is all left-hand work.

 

Oscar De La Hoya

What the ****, no Trinidad on YT? I have to do EVERYTHING myself?
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvsJ1TBs5pU&feature=related[/ame]

2:10-4:00

The above segment of film begins just as Oscar begins to move downstairs. More methodical than tricky he obviously has more in common with Lopez than Canto and whilst everybody rushes to espouse the qualities of his jab and hook I think some might be surprised to see him on a list like this. He belongs. If he was old time, he'd have got more respect from those guys because he's got the kind of jab and hook you'd want if punches were engines - reliable, never mis-fire and do some damge if they explode (see what i done there?).

At 2:14 Oscar throws a jab to the body and then does what can only be described as a Calzaghe-slap back upstairs. I love it, and it's exactly, exactly what I mean by cultured. Oscar is trying a new tactic in this third and isn't sure about jabbing to the body, he gets a fright when Chavez suddenly closes the distance on him and reacts with an overhand cuff that turfs the already ruffled Chavez off balance and spares him any further bother, then another jab upstairs. In abscene of the Trinidad footage, I picked this one because it shows that in addition to technical brilliance in his left hand, Oscar has great tactical discipline with that punch and it's deployment. All Chavez wants to do is get in - all Oscar wants to do is keep him out. Diaz was getting into Marquez inspite of his left jab but he turns that into a boon by deploying the left uppercut brilliantly. Here we see what that fight would have looked like had Marquez's jab been special enough to keep the Baby Bull off.

Check out the total control from 2:30. Oscar pushes Chavez back with the jab and once he corners him he doubles it up. Still boxing without risk, Oscar gets rushed at two forty and covers his walk-away with a left uppercut to the body. 2:55, blink and you'll miss it, Oscar walks Chavez onto a beautiful left-hook before moving off. No matter what the success Oscar has with uppercuts or hooks he walks his demoralised bleeding opponent back onto the end of the jab. Nothing less than doing the right thing for the right reason, which is more difficult in boxing than any other sport.

Between 3:20 and 3:45 Oscar does nothing less than put Chavez on the back foot with the jab alone. He alternates upstairs and down, letting Chavez nowhere near his reach. These punches aren't deadly and they aren't landing in some cases, but what they are is perfect sheparding punches, pushing Chavez back and then letting the dog see the rabbit at about 3:50, backing up momentarily with his hands down. Chavez rushes him, rushes him again, and each time Oscar tries to spring his own, why not, Cantoesque trap, a left uppercut that he's throwing from his boots. Neither punch lands - a great shame as that would have been a truly beautiful stuff.



Ken Buchanan

First amongst equals.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUOasy44BE0[/ame]

0:00-3:00

Buchanan to me is the definition of culture in one hand. He's got more variety in the jab than any other fighter i've ever seen. I don't know what that's worth and I don't want to get into all that now. But to me he has a left hand as special as any between Robinson and Marquez.

This is Buchanan's magical ninth against Duran. I think it's incredible that we're even looking at this fight because Buchanan's opponent is great in the way that no other opponent in this thread is, and Duran happens to have a serious style advantage and goods very specific to making it difficult for a left hand. But it's just about the best round my countryman ever boxed.

Buchanan doesn't get going until about 20 seconds, and when he does it's with the jab to the chest. The jab to the chest is a bit of a no-man's land punch because it's hard to keep the throwing it safe from harm, but Buchanan jab's so definitely that he needs the extra culture for interference. Not that the hook that he throws right behind the jab is not disguised like the Canto hook, and that Duran picks it off a bit. So Ken gets back to the jab. After landing one each up and down, Buchanan becomes a little crowded on about 0:32 and he fires out a rat-a-tat-tat type jab, punches in quick succession designed to exact the maximum toll from a rushing opponent. Buchanan's problem is much more serious than Oscar's, he isn't able to dictate range and so he has to adapt.

At 1:00 he jabs up and down again and it's really working for him this round, keeping Duran off balance. 1:14 it's a weird looking "up" jab from a square stance as he's going away, taking Duran by surprise. He attacks on 1:23, trebbling the jab up beautifully. All three of those jabs are sent to different homes although they have the same general target, lovely variety. More variety with the jab as at 1:34 he steps all the way in with a hard jab to the body, by now a disguised punch for him. A testimony to the rhthym of its very own each round seems to have in some great fights. At 1:45 Buchanan throws one of his very definite down jabs and follows it up with a shorter left to the chest, an old old punch we tend not to see so much these days. The variety on the jab in this round is off the charts, and this is against a guy it is really hard to jab. Nailing Duran again with his rapido version of the punch at 2:06 Buchanan throws in a down jab and is chased to the ropes where he lands an absolutley beautiful counter left, mostly a sneaky hook rather reminiscent of Oscar's slap on Chavez.

Buchanan completes his set landing a smothered uppercut on 2:31 before jabbing and hooking his way to the bell. Watched in isolation it's hard to believe Buchanan lost this fight after this ninth round. He looks to be flat out out-boxing Duran, mostly one-handed.

 

So who might you guys name to flesh out a top ten? Orthodox fighters only.

Any of the above you think shouldn't be included? Why? Who would you supplant?

A guy I looked at long and hard and actually wrote up half a paragraph for was Chucho Castillo!

 

Hagler was a southpaw.

Ok so if we add the five you guys have pitched into the pot we get -

Evander Holyfield
John Conteh
Matthew Saad Muhammad
Sugar Ray Leonard
Alexis Arguello
Oscar De La Hoya
Ken Buchanan
Juan Manuel Marquez
Miguel Canto
Ricardo Lopez


How does that look?

 

gtfo