Best boxing skills for a heavyweight not named Ali

Patterson had great boxing skill, so did Gene Tunney, Joe Louis & Lennox Lewis.

 

Both were good boxers, but Louis was much better than Holmes IMO.

 

True. I rank the brown bomber above Ali myself, but I can understand why others disagree.

 

I would agree with that. Trouble is he had a propensity for being dropped regularly (at least 20 times in his career), and he was probably just a little too small to be a true great HW.

 

Iron Mike was the total package. In terms of physical attributes and technique he was second to none.

Louis, Holyfield, and The Easton Assassin are up there too, obviously.

 

Don't forget Gene Tunney. Skill wise Ali has nothing over him.

 

But can you really call him a HW? Same with Charles and Spinks etc.

If we're talking people that just fought there, then yes, definitely. But I think it's better to just talk natural heavyweights.

 

In that case Joe Louis

with Gene Tunney and Floyd Patterson just behind,
Your right with Tunny he fought most of his career as a Light Heavyweight and only came up to Heavyweight to fight dempsey at the end.

Patterson if he was fighting today would be a Cruiserweight so my pick would be Joe Louis.

 

Holmes for me.

Riddick Bowe was also insanely skilled but lacked disciple, as well as 'the X factor'.

 

Larry Holmes for me. Lennox gets a bit overrated in this aspect IMO, though he was one of the most effective overall.

 

Louis is not a good choice in terms of purely boxing skills. He was a very textbook yes, but he lacked other facets of the game to, such as overall speed (though his handspeed in combination was very good, not as great as some make out though), defensive reflexes to get away with his low set guard, footspeed, etc. He had trouble getting off against movers as well IMO, or in and out fighters who didn't give him a chance to get set. Stay in there too long with him or fight at his pace and you were as good as done unless you hurt him first, but in a pure boxing sense he definitely wouldn't rank among the best IMO.

 

Sweet pea, I haven't seen much of Holmes, I saw the Cooney fight and the Ali fight and then against Tyson (after which Tyson admitted he would have lost to a Prime Holmes) and some highlight's can you recommend any fight's that show off his skill's.

 

Including Ali......Joe Frazier. Just Playing. I personally dislike heavyweights but for some reason I am a big fan of Joe Frazier.