aside from joe louis who is the most skilled HW ever?

Why do people keep mentioning a fighter who would lean backwards from punches and back up in straight lines, seriously?

Walcott is a decent shout though, I'd add Charles and Toney

 

Well Mayweather uses a half guard, he'll raise to a full guard when he needs it. A big weakness of Ali was low hands, backing up in straight lines, and Norton/Frazier both exposed that weakness, albeit past his prime

Dempsey also got outboxed quite a few times in his prime by Miske and Meehan

 

meehan got him in some 4 rounders..miske? though...dempsey whipped him....

 

Not saying Dempsey and Mayweather fight really alike..but hand postion isnt that different.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dPy_C5tXgc[/ame]


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFxcNfXMA60&feature=related[/ame]

 

Holmes,Ali,Greg Paige
Tim Wheatherspoon was very skilled as well,Tyrell Biggs was sure a waist of pure talent ,i also liked Wolcott and Charles skill level,and in his prime Tyson was a true marvel of a masterpiece.

 

If we are looking outside the champions, then what about Lee Ramage?

He was the only man who ever realy shut out Joe Louis (cited by the thread starter as No1) on the scorecards.

 

Its reported Miske outboxed Dempsey in their first fight, Dempsey hurt him late, 1 newspaper had Miske winning. Miske was dying from Bright's Disease in their last fight and consequently was 33-1 outsider despite their close first fight

 

Ten to Fifteen years seperated Jack Johnson from the Dempsey-Tunney era and what you call johnson'era was not "modern enough", is a stretch.
It was that the art of filming was the real difference, between the two era's..Most all boxing experts had Jack Johnson as the best "all around heavyweight",of them all up to the Louis era and probably beyond...He was pantherlike and able to catch incoming punches in mid-air...He might still be the best of alltime, if he went all out...

 

Good pick.

I wouldn't put Holmes or Tyson up there. Tyson was brilliant but one-dimensional and was worthless on the back foot. Holmes relied a lot on natural speed and his chin, though in his later years (e.g. against Mercer) he became a wonderful technical boxer.

What about Jimmy Young? Every fight that Young won, he won because of skill. He had negligible power, was physically pretty weak, wasn't THAT fast (fast, but not exceptionally fast), he had a breakable chin, he didn't have any notable reach advantages and he his stamina was average. Yet he beat a host of very good or great warriors in what many regard as the greatest era of heavyweight boxing. The one aspect of his game I think one could criticise him for was that he wasn't exceptional on the front foot during his prime, though he did very well even late in his career on the front foot against Michael Dokes.

In fact, I'm going with Jimmy Young. Not an ATG by any stretch, but he got as far as it is possible to go with pure skill. His win over George Foreman is the greatest triumph of boxing skill over power and strength in the history of boxing.

 

Liston had a lot of good skills, but I was never impressed by his footwork. Very linear, no angles and not lateral movement. Still, for a slugger, he had very good defensive skills and his offensive arsenal was, of course, brilliant.

 

Tony Tubbs

 

Lewis or Holmes

 

Evander Holyfield (although he started at cruiser fought most of career at heavyweight.)

Larry Holmes is up there too but he didnt have Evander's counterpunching ability, although Holmes had slightly better defense

 

It was far more than the art of filming. Johnson's style was adapted to small gloves, long fights and him holding a strength differential over his opponents, as he was quite a bit larger than many of these and was definitely a strong man for his time. Still, this approach did prove entirely successful and his performances against Choynksi, Hart, O'Brien, Johnson and Willard bear this out. Still a great, but no superman and not overly skilled in the modern sense.

If he tried that schtick a couple decades later, the results would have been drastically different. Not saying he didn't possess the abilities to adapt, rather just the would have had to adapt.