Five most cultured left hands since 1970

:goodAs soon as I read the opening to the thread,Ken Buchanan sprung to my mind immediately!Nice job,McGrain:good

 

Because he is such a standard pick in threads involving smooth, artistic, or subtle criteria, I'm shocked that only one has mentioned Napoles.

His left hand stands out for me as probably the most cultured I've seen, if for no other reason that he rarely threw the right. The left was his true bread and butter, and he had them coming at his opponent in such bewildering flurries and variations. It's mesmerizing to watch.

He's one of those fighters that was never in any truly great fights that I can think of, but I still love watching because he just knew so damn much.

 

I like Michael Spinks. Great jab, hook, and uppercut. Hard soft in combination. Knockout power when required; against Qawi he could have had a stump four a right arm and still might have won. Plus his left hand reads Faulkner and has extensive knowledge of French New Wave cinema.

 

Nicolino Locche.

Very quick, flashy, beautiful punches from his left. It almost looked like he was fencing. With a featherduster. Emphasis on the feather.

He could triple up the jab regularly, hook to the head and body quite accurately too.

It happened to be so spectacularly weak looking that it's not difficult to imagine it actually prodded some life back into his opponents.

But versatile, cultured and perfect for his style. Hell, it did the job.

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You lost me at sheet

 

Polygamy should be between.

 

That'd be why.

Cheers.

 

buchanan is number one for me.conteh fought quite a few of his fights with just his left hand so he's up there.
bob foster, ray leonard and larry holmes too

 

If this list included forever would Henry Armstrong make it? I like his lead left when he's not swarming. Both the jab and hook are so nasty, very powerful and incredibly fast.

 

This was a great thread glad to see it revived. De La Hoya had some left jab in his day, in the first round of his fight with Gonzalez he was snapping the guys head back like a big right hand would. Its a pity he was so left hand dependent in his heyday.

 

Yep, Mike Spinks' variety in the Qawi fight, as well as his deployment of his less championed left hand as a finishing blow against southpaws (Johnson, Wassaja) leads me to the conclusion that Mike's left was actually his best, and one of the best examples I've ever seen of a cultured left hand.

John Conteh also, as he showed in his tremendous one-handed display against Lopez.

Barrera as well.

 

Another rather obvious one that could already have been mentioned........Larry Holmes.

Not just because he had a good left hand; I think many fighters listed here had good left hands, but that's not what the title of thread is asking.

I would rank Holmes' jab best ever among heavies simply by virtue of his reliance on it. Liston and Louis both had great jabs, but supplemented the punch with numbing shots from either side. Ali had a good one too, but speed of hand and foot was his real weapon. The jab was just an appendage of that.

With Holmes, he didn't have the crushing power of Liston or Louis, and didn't have Ali's speed. What he did bring was a left jab that was a range-finder, a defensive tool (he was especially adept at sticking it out and holding it there, keeping an opponent at bay however illegally), and almost as a power punch. Ask Ocasio what he thought of it. He lived and died by the jab.

He also had an underrated hook to the body.