Most creative fighters of all time

The Drunken Master , Emanuel Augustus has to be up there towards the top.

 

Midget Wolgast is in the discussion

 

Willie Pep

 

Jimmy Young sticking his head outside the ropes against Ali was “creative”.

I’ve not seen any other fighter do that. Per the rules of boxing, it wasn’t kosher though.

 

I've pored thru a truckload of greats and i'm going to name someone that will surprise some people, but not others.

Hector Camacho

This guy was pretty much as talented as anyone, ever. In his early days he was doing things that were taking the old timers all the way back to Willie Pep. The combinations, the ridiculous speed of both hand and foot, the elusive, the lot. He was throwing punches and combinations from angles seldom seen. Added to this he started to show some pop in his punches.

Two things stopped him from being a solid ATG (IMO) - life in the fast lane and Edwin Rosario. Even just after Rosario he beat Boza Edwards quite comfortably as well as Howard Davis Jr but he'd lost a step as well as some confidence and aggression. Part of his edge was that he was aggressive with his speed and talents, having the overwhelming confidence to take full advantage of them. Post Rosario he was much more cautious and less aggressive which brought him well back to the pack. It's well documented during that time that he was living in the fast lane and potentially derailing his career and talent as well.

It's ironic that a guy that dropped confidence and embraced caution actually had a fantastic chin. His fight immediately prior to Rosario was a sensational schooling of the dangerous Joe Luis Ramirez, the best win over him ever (when he actually fought which for some bizarre reason he didn't vs Ray Mancini) and this is a guy that fought a lot of top tier opponents.

It was a real shame. If he had the sheer belief, the penchant for battle and dedication of some of the ATG's he would have had a heckuva career.

In those early days he was indeed an artist in the ring. His career is a story of two, some might even say three parts.

@Saad54

 

You could swap out the term creative for intelligent IMO the smartest of them all was probably Benny Leonard.

 

Maybe Greb. Top 5 resume and p4p of all time. Incredibly successful while probably not looking like a technically sound fighter thus winning on athleticism and creativity.

 

Juan Manuel Márquez. Very creative offensive fighter when given the opportunity to fire beautiful combinations.

 

Worth including Wilfred Benitez.

He had this uncanny knack to kind of get inside the rhythm of the opponent (which is what, imo, allowed him to anticipate with radar-like efficiency). He often seems to kind of mimic what’s in front of him and I think that’s him on some instinctive level (not taught or learned or probably even conscious behavior) figuring out the guy’s style to sense the opponent’s patterns and figure out the proper counters.

I’d say any instinctive fighter is in this category, more or less.

So to a lesser degree I’d include Ray Leonard (he was great at adjusting game plans on the fly — try Plan A; if that doesn’t work, switch to B; after that, try something else). You can especially see it I think in his earlier career with the likes of Geraldo and Mayweather.

Also maybe Bobby Chacon, Camacho up to Rosario and Marvin Hagler. Michael Spinks was pretty malleable too, but at light heavy rarely had to do much adjusting.

 

Roy

 

Great points JT - and particularly the fact that Hector had an excellent chin and could take his licks if there was no other option but to.

 

Jersey Joe Walcott also had some cute moves that defined him as somewhat unique.

 

Per fight reports, Fat Willie Meehan utilised some unorthodox (“innovative”) moves - certainly sufficient to give his frequent dance partner, Jack Dempsey, the absolute Willies.

If interested, here’s a brief article (below) where Willie reflects on those encounters, paying tribute to The Mauler’s power.

And note, Willie correctly calls a Dempsey victory over Carpenter inside of 4 rounds.

https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NPO19210627.1.7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN--------

 

Michael Spinks kinda comes to mind.