I wish we spoke more about Ali's grappling and wrestling ability. Complain about his collar ties and head holding all you want, but it happened, and it was effective. Ali had freakish strength in his ability to move men who you would have believed were much stronger than he, I don't know if any other HW champion had a better understanding of grappling than Ali.
The likes of Jeffries and Johnson might disagree but yeah, Ali had tremendous functional strength and knew how to distort a man's balance and manipulate their position in the ring to his advantage. Sweet Pea's strength and skill on the inside doesn't get enough kudos for its effectiveness, in my opinion. Eubank's short uppercut could be devestating. Louis' parry and return jab, as well as how nimble he could be on his feet when he chose to. Floyd's jab to the belly being one of his best punches. Tyson's jab to set up the approach to mid-range was quick, snappy and accurate. Pep's combination punching was art - such a fine, versatile left hand. Prime Ali's footwork had just as much traces of Pep as it did SRR - look at the hand positioning as he circles to his right and the shifts and pivots with the head tucked behind the shoulder as he rolls under punches. Hearns' handspeed was just as devastating as his power. His actual ability to outbox was of the highest echelon.
My favourite is Bruno, and I don't think any aspects of his game are hidden. But I did always think Juan Manuel Marquez had under rated combination punching. At times I felt he put punches together better than anyone else out there.
Evander Holyfield had very good boxing skills which I wish he would have utilized more. While his tendency to brawl made for more exciting fights, I believe it also led to some of his defeats
