Cleverest boxer of the modern era?

Sergio Mora. A guy with B level skills and no power gets a shot at The Contender and wins a million dollars. Rally later in the fights to impress the judges and get controversial decions (Manfredo II and Ayala). Then, turns down a fight he couldn't win against Taylor.
Accepts a fight against Forrest, runs in the first 3 rounds to fade his old opponent and simply outwork him to get the decision and become a world champ.
Considering his lack of power and skills he has done a hell of a career.

 

Monzon hasn't been mentioned?

He controlled everyone he ever fought, Monzon was going to fight his fight no matter who he was in the ring with, and all of his opponents were going to fight his fight as well.

Monzon was brilliant, an amazing strategist and should have been mentioned earlier (not that he's #1, it's impossible to really say).

BTW, the adjustments Hopkins has made in his style over the years to suit where he was at that stage of his career is pure genious, Bernard is an extremelly intelligent and crafty fighter.

 

The most clever boxer ever is Rocky Marciano! He trained harder then anyone, never lost a pro fight, and retired in good health with money. His opponents also had two choices when they went against him: either retire after the fight, or go to the hospital afterwards.

 

Umm.. how about skill? like counterpunching? punch placement? combinations? being the smarter fighter? feet movement(tactically)? DEFENSE? Fighting better on the backfoot? (Those are just the ones off the top of my head. There's probably more of them).

And how about the simple fact, that it's UNIVERSALLY recognized that styles make fights, and JMM holds a styles advantage over Pac. Seriously where have you been the past few years?

 

No you are just picking levels to his ring intelligence. All of those categories fall under ring intelligence.

Pac has all the advantages other than that. You can't honestly say JMM does. And the styles thing is kind of irrelevant when Pac hold all those advantages over him

 

Floyd Mayweather!

 

In my mind it has to be ray leonard

he was clever both IN the ring during a fight and out of the ring setting up his career

fightwise, look at how he adjusted to tommy hearns in their first fight... then look at how he fought duran in their 2nd fight... and hagler...

and the way he chose his fights post detached retina... the lalonde thing for TWO different weight titles in one fight... picking hagler at his weakest... etc

guy was really really clever and about the only thing he didnt do well was commentary on hbo which i couldnt stand

 

Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins.

You know you're doing something right when you face P4P studs in your 40's and make them look bad despite being limited physically and having limited stamina. Guys like SRL and PBF had the raw talent to fall back on. I know they were smart but i gotta go with B-Hop.

 

Cherry picking goes to Mayweather, hands down on that one.

Ring smarts when it came to the HW was ROCKY MARCIANO and ALI, no one smarter than those two. These guys didn't know the meaning to cherry picking. Anyone that managed a win against these two guys was historical. Of course, no one managed a win over Cassius Clay or Marciano.

The lower weights, I say SUGAR RAY LEONARD was the best at ring smarts, sometimes able to even dance in front of the other fighters, he fought everyone he could too, and he really only lost once. He fought some really scary guys over the years.

 

I'm going to cast a vote for Whitaker, especially as he's not getting enough mentions in this thread.

The slyest, most slippery ******* I ever saw in the ring, and went into almost every single fight with natural disadvantages in size and strength, and he didn't just win: he won easy.

 

Doesn't matter. All those "levels" are as significant as Pac's advantages on Power, Speed, and Youth(Stamina they are about even). Those "levels" are the reason why many(possibly more) people picked JMM to beat Pac.

The styles thing is relevant, IMO. Pac holds advantages over JMM, but JMM holds more advantages over Pac(irregardless if they are "levels" of one attribute). Again, styles favor JMM over Pac. That's very easy to see. JMM's technical/boxing skills(i.e those "levels" your talking about) are the type to negate the slugging style that Pac mainly employs(atleast before he stepped up to 135).

 

Ali
Leonard
Hopkins
Jones Jr.
Mayweather Jr.

 

:good

 

Have to go with Ali or Leonard on ring smarts tho Hopkins was always a cunning customer too.

 

Only one guys mention him yet but I think that Roy Jones Jr is the cleverest boxer of the modern era.