Best footwork through the ages -- who won fights with his feet?

Jjw

 

Jersey Joe Walcott
Willie Pep

 

Ali, just try punching thin air for nine minutes and see how your arms feel.

 

That's athleticism, footwork is about do the most while expending the least amount of energy.

 

In his times James J. Corbett was well known for good footwork.

 

Every great fighter has won with his feet, and in many different fashions from Jack Johnson to Carlos Monzon, from Benny Leonard to Chavez. Getting into position to shoot and out of position... even James Toney type pocket fighters need the correct balance and foot placement to pull off their style.

If you're just looking for flashy footwork, Walcott comes to mind but I think some of his stuff just burned calories and wasn't always effective. Duran had great feet as did his nemesis Leonard. Of late, Waldo has the lightest feet of superheavies, tho he has gotten long in the tooth.

 

Walcott, Pep, Buchanan,Ali,

 

Best footwork? Tunney, Pep, Ali, Canto

The thing with prime Ali is that his legs alone would carry him out of harms way......effortlessly.

Canto is forgotten unless you were around at that time and had access to see him fight. Weak puncher but my oh my what an outstanding boxer.

 

For an aggressive fighter you never saw Marvin Hagler Stumble off Balance, and of course ala the Hamsho and Sibson Fights he was very comfortable and smooth fighting off the back foot. so every which way Marvin was one of the best.

However, it is very difficult to identify an exponent of great footwork when that is but one component and they may be let down by other skills that might help them maintain that Footwork advantage,
Vernon Sollas, Kenneth Gould, Mike Colbert, Kirkland Laing Howard Davis Jr Hector Acero Sanchez Colin McMillon ect ect there have been so many boxers with superlative footwork, but they just have not had the supporting and ancillary attributes to build a lasting platform of recognition, like most things in Boxing Excelling at one aspect will not be enough and needs to be complimented with a full armoury,

I suspect when footwork is mentioned the usual suspects will emerge
Pep
Loughran
Rosenbloom
Conn
Tunney
H Johnson
Locche
Legra
Nunn

Just So Many - Superb Timing, Superb Anticipation superb Judgement of Pace, Superb Spacial Awareness... I think they are all interwoven to produce a successful display, footwork may simply be the tip of the iceberg that gets the credit

 

Robinso had fantastic footwork knew how to move himself around the ring around get into distance to unleash

 

If you want to see a guy win with his feet, watch McGirt v Brown. Ricardo Lopez, Napoles could control fights with their feet. The 2nd Gonzalez v Carbajal fight.

 

I suppose Corbett was ahead of his times in the footwork department.