Fastest Hand Speed In Each Weightclass ?

I don't want to have the same names BTW which is why i didn't put Roy Jones Jr in other weightclasses.

Heavyweight = Muhammad Ali

Cruiserweight = Floyd Patterson I don't think he ever weighed over 200 pounds and he would be classed as Cruiserweight now so i'm slightly bending the rules here.

Light Heavyweight = Roy Jones Jr

Super Middleweight = Joe Calzaghe

Middleweight = Sugar Ray Robinson

Jr Middleweight = Terry Norris

Welterweight = Sugar Ray Leonard

Jr Welterweight = Meldrick Taylor

Lightweight = Howard Davis Jr

Super Featherweight = Hector Camacho

Featherweight = Manny Pacquiao

I'm gonna stop at Featherweight because it's hard to really pick a standout fighter regarding handspeed at smaller weightclasses.

 

I disagree.

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@Mark Anthony

Mike Tyson had incredible handspeed - only two heavyweights are generally considered to have been faster

Emmanuel Steward perhaps put it best:

“back then, Mike was a very special combination of speed, power, and intensity."


Mike Tyson was the youngest heavyweight champion ever for very good reasons. He was a boxer-puncher of appalling speed, hand-speed, constant movement and power, who threw "punches in bunches" with bad intentions while maintaining superb defense.

Mike had an enormous willingness to work, devoting himself not just to the gym, but spending countless hours as a teenager in Cus D'Amato's film library, watching thousands of hours of film of other fighters. He studied the old master's, especially Jack Dempsey, whom he modeled his style after.

Mike had superb training. First Teddy Atlas, then Kevin Rooney, trained him. D'Amato himself spend time in the film room with him, talking about styles, fights, and fighters. Rooney, in particular, crafted Mike from a raw beginner to a deadly boxer of extraordinary quality.

Kevin Rooney worked with Tyson, from the start of his career up to the Spinks fight, and Rooney says:

“he punched fast and hard. That’s a difficult combination to deal with. Especially when those fast punches come in bunches, in good, solid, combinations,"


Rooney also said:

“speed kills, and Mike had speed, f****** unbelievable speed!”


But two fighters generally are considered to have been faster than Mike

First, his forerunner as Cus D’Amato’s heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, had incredible speed. A natural middleweight, who won Olympic Gold at that weight, and whose best professional weight class would have been middleweight or light heavyweight, Patterson got by as a heavyweight, despite a weak chin, by his blazing speed and vastly underrated skill and power.

And of course, Muhammad Ali was faster than Mike.

Boxing Historian Monte Cox wrote that:

“Muhammad Ali was the most naturally gifted heavyweight champion in history.”


Muhammad Ali, The Greatest

The 1960’s pre-exile Ali was the fastest fighter who ever lived, bar none.

Tyson’s manager tested fighter speed, including Mike’s and Muhammad’s, on film - and Muhammad was by far the fastest fighter of all time

Tyson’s co-manager, Jimmy Jacobs, who owned the world’s largest collection of fight films, said that on film tests with a synchronizer Ali’s jab was faster than that of Sugar Ray Robinson, or any middleweight, welterweight, or lightweight, he could measure.

Jacobs contended that Ali was not only the fastest heavyweight, but also the fastest fighter he ever saw, and was able to measure, on film. (that includes Patterson and Tyson!)

Ali’s handspeed had been tested before

Ali's speed was also measured: In the May 5, 1969 issue of Sports Illustrated, Ali’s jab was measured with an omegascope. Ali’s jab, it was found, could smash a balsa board 16.5 inches away in 19/100 of a second. It actually covered the distance in 4/100 of a second, which is the blink of an eye. (and a lot faster than Floyd Patterson, or later, Mike Tyson)

Certainly other fighters, including Mike Tyson, strongly stated they felt Ali was the fastest fighter they had ever seen

Tyson says when asked if he was faster than Ali:

“He [Ali] was faster than any heavyweight ever!"


Floyd Patterson said of Ali and comparing him to other greats such as Joe Louis:

“I was a lot faster than Joe Louis, and Ali was a lot faster than me!"


Bob Foster: said:

“Muhammad Ali. He was the man. He was big, fast; was he fast and slick in the ring! You wouldn't believe how fast!"


Zora Folley, after facing Ali, said:

“he is just too fast! you can't hit him! But he sure can hit you."


Canadian heavyweight George Chuvalo said in Ring of Ali’s speed:

“my plan for the fight was simple: as the shorter guy, I wanted to stay close to Ali, nullify his speed and prevent him from using the whole ring. I also wanted to make it rough. The rougher, the better. But it took all of about 30 seconds for me to realize he was the fastest fighter I’d ever seen. It’s one thing to expect it; it’s another thing to feel it, live it."


Angelo Dundee, Ali's and Sugar Ray Leonard's trainer, said, after being asked which fighter was faster, the welterweight all time great, Leonard, or Ali, simply said:

“Ali was the fastest fighter I ever saw in a ring."


What about Cleveland Williams, what did he say about Ali's speed?:

“His speed, you can't hit him, you just cannot hit him! I threw hooks, I threw uppercuts, I missed them all! Hell, I couldn't even land a jab!"


Compubox claims Williams landed all of 10 punches in his fight with Ali - Thomas Hauser, boxing writer and historian believed that was too high, and rescored it, and found Williams actually landed 3 punches.

Rocky Marciano? What did he think? Rocky Marciano, who filmed the "computer fight" with Ali in 1969 while Ali was banned from boxing, said of Ali:

“he was the fastest man on wheels, no fighter who ever lived was that fast."

 

I didn't want to put the same names in every weightclass as honestly RJJ could be in 3 different weightclasses.

 

I was going to put Hearns but I went with Norris because of the flashy fast combinations. But as you said that doesn't necessarily mean hes faster than Hearns, because Hearns is more a like sniper or cobra like with his punches.

 

Exactly yes RJJ could arguably be at Light Heavyweight, Super Middleweight, Middleweight. I thought that would be a bit of a cop out so I wanted to make it more interesting having different names in each of weightclass.

 

@NoNeck @northpaw

I actually forgot about Gary Russell Jr his combinations are lightning fast he definitely has an argument.