Best lateral movers of all time?

By way of contrast, here's the beginning of Leonard-Duran, a fight in which Leonard attempts to use no lateral movement at all: https://streamable.com/k0a0

 

Vasyl Lomachenko.

 

The definitive southpaw with two left feet, but methinks ye may be a wee bit confused betwixt lateral movement and horizontal without...

 

I always remember Jerry Quarry's answer post fight when asked if he found Bodell awkward he replied "Well he sure fell awkward"

 

Besides the obvious picks, I think Anubis's pick of Frazier is a good one. Joe had very underrated lateral movement. Great footwork both offensively and defensively.

For me the masterclass in technical lateral movement is McCallum vs Harding. Absolutely perfect.

 

Classic quote.

 

:rofl I doubled over as soon as I read your mention of Bodell, and can't believe I was the first one to call you on it! My laugh for the day. When I watch Bodell-Bugner, I'm convinced Joe made his real income with walking tank jobs. Looking at him blast out Dunn, Denis, and buckle Frazier after getting off the floor (the only time anybody ever sagged Smoke's knees like that with a single shot in a later round)

Sometimes, I wonder what Bugner might have accomplished with anger issues or roid rage. He should have crushed Jack the way Jerry did, the way Joe himself would take six seconds to put Dunn on the floor the first time.

JQ almost did floor Bodell five seconds after the opening bell, but the ropes halted Jack's backward momentum. Then, an uncalled knockdown 0:50 seconds in, before the sleeper five seconds later. Interestingly, the opening near knockdown was courtesy of a right, the uncalled knockdown due to a counter right, and the finisher from a slip and counter right. Dealing with a southpaw, Jerry used a glove just to keep his more heralded left warm, much like Cuevas would do later in taking a single round to end the career of Billy Backus. (Hooking to the head of a southpaw from the orthodox stance can be a tricky proposition, but Henry Cooper executed clinics on how to do it with Bodell 2X and Mildenberger when HW southpaws were an extreme rarity, and Karl had been the only southpaw challenger for the World HW Title in history.)

 

Not always. Again, he told Don Dunphy immediately after Mac Foster that, "He can hit like heck, man! Whew!" He was complimentary of former sparring partners Foreman and Denis when they squared off, told Cosell it was going to be a helluva fight when Frazier-Ellis I took place, and he was always very friendly with Earnie Shavers in post fight interviews as a commentator.

His musing comment about Norton towards the end of Ken's match against Middleton, "He's gonna have to fight a heckuva lot better than this to beat Ali!," clearly shows he felt the Ali who rebounded from Young against Richard Dunn had it all over Norton. Jerry had been badly beaten by both Ken and Muhammad, so he had nothing to gain or lose by expressing the truth as he expected it.

In point of fact, I don't see a close bout between the pre Inoki 220 pound Ali of the Dunn mugging having an especially close fight with the Norton who struggled with Middleton, and should have been made to settle for a ten round decision over Larry. That Inoki screwed up Ali's legs so much in that Tokyo MMA farce that Muhammad needed to be hospitalized to have them drained speaks for itself. If Ali had skipped Inoki and gone directly from Dunn to Norton III, he would have done more dancing and jabbing while Ken did more following without punching at all. Ali also would have had more power to generate from his legs to halt Norton in his tracks from time to time.

Look at Ali-Dunn, then Norton-Middleton. Would you have disagreed with Jerry's assessment favoring Ali to retain the title with those performances as the precursor? We'd have still had the dull bout which did take place, but I don't see the resulting UD in Ali's favor as being the wide controversy their actual rubber match remains today. (It still seems to me that most youtube viewers of that entire bout agree in surprise that the rounds basis close UD in favor of Ali reflects accurate scoring, although the breakdown of the official cards is seen as inexplicable and rigged.)

 

Frazier had very slow legs. Quick left hook but slow legs. Joe said so himself.

 

That's fair. I was thinking of some of the negative things that he said about Shavers during Shavers-Clark II and about Dokes in Page-Evangelista.

 

Roy Jones at `160 and `68. His fight against James Toney was a great example of side to side movement along with blazing quickness.

 

Gilberto Roman v. Sugar Baby Rojas (II):

https://streamable.com/66q82

 

Michael Nunn had fantastic movement.

Sweet Pea
Virgil Hill
Thomas Hearns
Sumbu Kalambay was fantastic.
Heorl Graham
Tyrone Everett
Ken Buchanan
Johnny Famechon
Hector Camacho
Roger May weather
Calvin Grove
Howard Davis-suprised nobody mentioned him.
Jose Legra

 

Wow. I might have to check out Gilberto Roman.

 

Gene Tunney