Lewis's holding and hitting. Floyd's forearm framing across the face to help him line up the right hand. SRR found the kidneys more than once with some of his combination body work. Fullmer used his head much like Evan did. Saddler was particularly loose with keeping it nice and clean. Reports say that Greb had no problems using his thumbs, laces, elbows and a headbutt or two in the clinch. Ali and Holmes have been called liberal with a thumb to the eye in at least a fight or two. Schmelling was lucky not to be paralysed versus Joe Louis in their rematch. Most great fighters have a bit of a nasty side that would do anything to retain or win their title. Jesus, Duran beat Buchanan on a low blow and we rarely talk about it. Dempsey did Sharkey in with a low blow - it's one of those things that you might expect from people paid to inflict violence on each others.
Now my question is,out of all those things which fighters employed those tricks without getting caught the most? Imo Duran could've also belong as a contender,liked him and he beat most of his opponents fair,but his destruction of Moore was definitely not so clean... At times he likes to lace and hold the back head of Moore(from my memory) a few times,then that accidental thumb plus all those kidney shots, he's also hitting and holding Moore hard. For a man named Davey this fight for him was no happy.
Probably, Duran, Armstrong or Greb. They mixed in consistent line crossing with excellence, making it hard for a referee to see it. To be fair, Greb is seen as quite dirty or rough, as is Saddler, so even if refs didn't always punish them, the opinions speak for themselves. Duran is seen as a great and rarely gets picked up for rule bending. You could say the same for Armstrong as his excellence and headmovement and shoulder and head nudges aren't necessarily clean and English gentlemanly but certainly are effective.
John Ruiz's clinch. If Tua didn't meet him then we would've seen a more technical John Ruiz. Yet again, that would mean Lewis v. Tua probably wouldn't have happened, or Ibeabuchi would go on to fight Lewis.
I’d guess Mysterious Billy Smith should have been a tad sneakier given how he got DQ’d like 14 times.
Duran and Holmes come to mind due to their liberal framing across the head and shoulders. Holmes also performed one of the classics that I've also seen Foreman and Nunn use- Lock with the lead arm, pull in and throw with the rear arm. Foreman did a lot, and I mean a LOT of what would be considered cheating today during his initial run in the 70's. I think he got a point deducted in the 90's for putting his palm on guy's faces.
