Most skilled: Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Jersey Joe Walcott, or Harold Johnson

In-prime: Ezzard Charles

Out-of-prime: Archie Moore

 

Charles was the best, peak for peak, and is the greatest.

Based on pure technical acumen, arguably Moore.

Charles (as well as Johnson and JJW) was technically very skilled too, but I think he was more reliant on his incredible athleticism/speed than Moore.

 

They all had immense skill but I’ll give the trophy to Charles

 

JJW - Classy, Skillful, Cagey, Hard Punching Slickster.
Charles - Methodical Scientific Basic Boxer
Moore - Fundamentalist, Adaptable, Strategic, Boxer Fighter, with obvious Killer Punching power...
Johnson - I honestly can't say with certainty, but as I remember reading, he was a Hard Hitting Technical Fighter (?).

ALL Great Fighters forsure.

 

How to pick a winner among such an elite group of men?

Any of them would be better in at least one respect, than all of the others.

They are all maestros of course, but Ezzard Charles strikes me as being the most complete among them.

 

At their peak, this would be a murders row. Could anyone from 175-200 pounds fight all of them back to back and remain undefeated? But in prime, I would say Charles gets the trophy

 

Another Charles vote. Incredible fighting machine

 

Ezzard was possibly the greatest boxer of all time. I think if you wanted to learn with your eyes you wouldn’t pick up any mistakes or bad habits watching EC.

 

Charles, he proved his superiority over the other three too IMO. I had him beating Johnson - only by a point, mind you - and the reports of the Moore fights paint a picture of him being plain and simply, a better fighter. The fourth digit against Walcott seemed to be an unpopular decision as well, although that's not as easy to figure out.

An aged Moore with more experience may be a strong contender, but Charles to me is king here.

 

For my taste (and it is about that when you have guys that are basically the same level like these) is Johnson. His jab and his ring generalship and his punching form, is the perfect expression of the textbook fighter.

 

Johnson had the jab and timing
Moore had defense and toughness/heart
Walcott had the footwork and feints
Charles though...

Charles was the mix of all of them. He didn't have the stylish shuffling of Jersey Joe, he didn't perfect the philly shell like Moore did, and he didn't have a top 10 all time best jab like Harold, but he was still able to blend angles, distance management and feinting, all of which set up his beautiful counters - and he had power in both hands, too. No wonder he went in and 2-2 Walcott (arguably 3-1, last fight was pretty close and some say he won), 3-0 Moore and gave Johnson a close losing decision while out of his element. These 4 should've been called the murderers' row of the 50's, honestly. Or maybe a counter-punchers' row?

 

Yes, Rocky Marciano.
I choose Charles, but that's for nuance.

 

I doubt that many people rank Charles higher than I do - #1 all time at LHW and #5 all time at p4p.

Yet, I'm surprised the majority who have commented have cited him as the most skilled. Perhaps I have a different interpretation of the term skills.

Charles is the best and the greatest of the 4, sure, but in terms of technical skill, I think there are some parallels between Charles/Moore and RJJ/ Hopkins.

Peak for peak, Charles and RJJ had the better physical/athletic gifts, most notably more explosive speed, and consequently were better than Moore and Hopkins, respectively.

However, Moore and Hopkins had better longevity, because, imo, when past their physical prime, their superior technical skills made up for their diminished physical abilities, which they were never as reliant on as Charles and RJJ.

Granted, Charles was very skilled, more so in a conventional sense than RJJ, but Moore is one of the greatest technical fighters of all time.

There can be no question that - 1. Peak for peak Charles had better physical gifts, especially speed, than Moore; and 2) When past their respective physical primes, Moore was the better fighter.