Best Technical Fighters By Decade

I thought Kostya was a great technician throughout his career, though he was certainly sharper and faster on his feet in his earlier years. I think he's alot smarter and adaptable in the ring than he's given credit for at times, too much emphasis is put on his final loss to Hatton.

 

I don´t like the word "evolve" when it comes to boxing technique. I don´t see no evolution going on. What I see happening are changes, adaptions to new rulesets. Different rules favour different abilities, skills, assets, flaws and techniques. Yes, boxing changed a lot. But styles that are around today, wouldn´t work that great in the bareknuckle era or shortly after. At the same time the styles of back then wouldn´t work that great today either. All boxing techniques were around since a very, very long time. Some are used less, some more in differents time. Due to the ruleset of the said time, not due something like "evolution". I don´t think boxing technique got better over the last 130 years. It got different.

 

That´s the best one so far I think. Kid Chocolate should really be in there though.

Others who aren´t not quite up there but I think deserve to be mentioned are McCallum, Benton, MAB, Patterson.

 

Jack Britton?

Packey McFarland would be giving Britton a boxing technique lesson whenever they meet.

 

Yes, yes, agreed !
Benton is a very good shout !
Some different names deserves a mention here :
- Jose Legra, Joey Archer, Gilberto Roman, Lionel Rose.......

 

Ah, a misunderstanding then. Well, in here evolution is often used as "getting better". I agree with you that fighters didn´t get better worse, they adepted to the rules and circumstances of their times.

 

Harold Johnson takes it for me..in the period he was active.

 

Shut up you fool

 

:smooch

 

I havent watched that much kick boxing for ages, but since you are a martial arts man, you would probably know more. My understanding is that modern kick boxing technique has evolved into a more square stance, weight on the back foot, with kick boxers using the front kick in a similar way to the jab. I would have thought that the theory behind this, is that by squaring the stance and dropping the weight more back on the back foot, the fighter can launch into a stinging left front kick. which will be more powerful.

It seems to me that this was the reasoning to a large degree (or may have been) with the weight on the back foot. If you look closely at a Jack Johnson or Jim Jeffries, their straight left jab is almost a hybrid jab/cross because of the weight distribution. This can be contrasted with a Muhammed Ali style jab where he stands more at a 45 degree angle and throws the left, which will obviously land quicker and possibly even less telegraphed and harder to see, but will not be delivered with the same force. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that we more modern figthers concentrate more on getting the KO Power and less worried about speed, in their training (as a general rule).

Is the older method better or worse, i dont know. I do have no doubt that at amateur level (for want of a better word) that the modern method is far more successful and better. And this is one of the reasons why the sport has 'evolved'. It would be silly to train a fighter to fight one way if it is going to take them years to perfect the style. This is one reason why the Ali dancing style seemed to phase out. I am sure it works, but it is harder to learn for the average joe than the simple Tyson, crouch and hit as hard as possible. Likewise, students get fast results from bodybuilding and pumping iron, so their will naturally be more reliance on this than training techniques.

I think also the search for perfect technique is skewed further by the fighters who are champs because people who train idolise and imitate them. Ali was followed by many Dancers, Tyson grew big punching brigade (although he was more, the media portrayed his power as the big thing with him not his speed, which in reality was the reason he was so good and could ko guys), Holyfield made weight pumping the fad, Lennox made size seen as the key thing, Wlad will make it trendy to box tall behind a long jab, and clinch. This will be the thing until someone else breaks through.

 

You make some good comments, particularly about staying light on the left and a right kick being hard to land. Interestingly, Bob Fitzsimmons used to like to stay light on his left foot.

Theoretically, the right hand lead is also slow and difficult to land clean (unless you are a Muhammed Ali quick fighter). I suppose a main difference though is that with weight on the back leg, a lead right kick simply cannot be thrown at all, whereas a lead right can be thrown equally as effective as from a traditional stance. Possibly, even a touch harder.

yeah, except the front kick is generally squared up and thrown much more regularly, like squaring up for a jab, isnt it. Squaring up for a jab, would also make the jab much more powerful, wouldnt it.

I think this is correct to a large extent. IMO, the weight on the back foot pretty much finished with Dempsey, when he beat Johnson. This was followed by Tunney and then totally finished by Joe Louis' domination. also, the change in the clinch rule and the better gloves, which allowed a higher work rate from most people also helped the weight on the front foot.

Jack Johnson made intereting observations that weight on the back foot allowed better sideways movement and pointing the front foot forward allowed the fighter to hit from better angles.

He is never mentioned as a technical boxer, though imo, for the basic first timer and majority of people, i cant for the life of me see why you would teach a style that differs from rocky marciano. To me he is the most technically correct boxer from the point of view of always having a proper stance, putting weight in to punches, keeping hands up etc. Most people confuse technical fighting with being fast, flashy and dancing, imo.

NO, too old and lazy.