Who is the best finisher in boxing today?

True a guy like Kovalev who may be the hardest puncher p4p in the sport today is in my opinion not a good finisher. To finish is an art and it's a skill that needs to be cultivated and for many great fighters they never master it even those with power.

Look at a guy like Manny Pacquiao who despite being an exceptional fighter with power was never a great finisher. His style was more to just overwhelm his opponent with sheer volume of power shots until the towel was finally thrown. In both of his best victories (MAB and Cotto) he had chances to go for the kill, but couldn't get it done. Instead what happened was he just pounded away round after round after round until the opponent had simply taken too much punishment.

Contrast that with a textbook finish like we saw in Pavlik-Taylor. First Pavlik stuns Taylor. He waits for Taylor to back up into the corner. Pavlik then slowly cuts off any escape route and maintains balance. Then unleashes accurate combinations using uppercuts, hooks and straights coming from both hands in a controlled manner. That's how you finish.

 

Wilder hasn't stopped a top 10 opponent in his career. He fought one guy in the top 10 and that was an out of shape and past prime Stiverne and he didn't stop him. When he stops somebody decent we can talk about his finishing skills.

I think it's GGG who's the best finisher today because he has consistently finished top 10 guys. Once he hurts you he's quick to cut off any escape and lands combinations that finish the fight. Or does it about as regularly as anybody does.

 

Golovkin never actually hurt Jacobs though. He jabbed his way to victory. I do believe that if Golovkin had landed something huge and it hurt Jacobs that he would have cut off the ring and finished Jacobs, but the opportunity never presented itself.

I still believe that stopping a top 10 opponent means something. It is after all (this boxing thing) about level of competition.