Craftiest fighters ever.

Beat me to it on Smith, Pat. And was going to reference the same passage from my favourite boxing book. I love how Liebling writes - 'Johnson got hit with a left hook to the chops it is a pleasure to remember not having received.' How good is that?

 

Concur. He beat a bunch of people up.

 

Maybe it's because i saw Barkley vs Duran today, but you can't find someone much better than that.
Duran had all the subtle tricks completely dominated.
I want to add Winky Wright, a guy with so many physical disadvantages (he wasn't really fast or an incredible puncher), he really represented how far can you go with only the fundamentals.

 

Monzon had great craft. Faced all sorts of fighters and always figured a way to impose his strengths, his pace and his distance. Underrated boxing IQ.

 

Willie Pep

 

Ahh. I can read AJ Liebling all day, over and over ... and sometimes do.

I love this passage from Ahab and Nemesis, his account of Rocky Marciano vs. Archie Moore, about Moore's knockdown of the Rock in the second round:

"He hit him right if ever I saw a boxer hit right, with classic brevity and conciseness. Marciano stayed down for two seconds. ... A man who took nine to come up after a punch like that would be doing well, and the correct tactic would be to go straight in and finish him. But a fellow who came up on two would bear investigation."

It's poetry.

 

O

Or when Marciano kayoed Walcott who 'flowed down like flour out of a chute'. You didn't need to see the knockdown. In fact, you almost don't want to. It's arguably the best one punch kayo in heavyweight title history but, even then, it can't do justice to prose like that.

 

Herol.Graham. Marlon starling .very tricky.

 

Jung Koo Chang displayed some crafty skills for a light punching swarmer

 

Antonio Cervantes.

 

Manning Galloway