Give your TOP-5 in these categories (active boxers): ...

Come on board, get your act together...

Ducklerr, what do you say to my list for offence plus honourable mentions?

What might your list look like...


More contributions, folks. This is a thread for the experts to shine and educate the semi or non experts such as myself. Though, I'm never afraid to have egg on my face. Let's have some lists and reasons for the enrichment of the fighting soul.

 

Calling all cowardly experts to man the F up and educate the rest of us. Chance to have an enriching discussion here... surprised at the lack of contribution. Probably going to be the last time I bump this until I have a more meaningful contribution for the other categories to state.

 

Interesting to see your lists. It seems most here agree that GGG, Kovalev and Gonzalez all deserve a top-five spot for effective offence. I guess it's splitting hairs but it would be interesting to know why you give Gonzalez the edge over Kovalev who in turn edges GGG?

Just a reminder of how I ranked them...

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— ramrod shots, vicious, accurate, measured, efficient, versatile, committed, seek and destroy mentality, very good power, carries power/effectiveness late.

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— tank like, surgical, smart oscillation of attack, dynamite in both hands, ramrod jab, impressive patience, always varied, volume.
3.M.Pacquiao — blazing speed, vicious extended combinations, unorthodox and effective angles, difficult to deter.

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— angles, smooth rhythm, volume, committed, seek and destroy mentality, fires long or short very effectively, good jab, fluid combinations.


I think Gonzalez only slightly edges out Estrada for offence. He seeks out his offence more but Estrada has great offence on the backfoot and uncanny timing.

More to come on movement..

Updated list:

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— tank like, surgical, smart oscillation of attack, dynamite in both hands, ramrod jab, impressive patience, always varied, volume.

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— angles, smooth rhythm, volume, committed, seek and destroy mentality, fires long or short very effectively, good jab, fluid combinations.

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— ramrod shots, vicious, accurate, measured, efficient, versatile, committed, seek and destroy mentality, very good power, carries power/effectiveness late.
4.M.Pacquiao — blazing speed, vicious extended combinations, unorthodox and effective angles, difficult to deter.

 

I actually believe Lomachenko has the best movement of the lot, which might be a bold claim but he almost never gets backed up onto the ropes, is incredibly fast, and uses his movement in some of the most creative ways I've ever seen to set up very unusual and dazzling offence.

I don't know as much about boxing as a lot here, so hesitate to formulate a definitive list, but 4 of your 5 names came to mind. I'd swap out Ward for GGG though perhaps inactivity hurts him. GGG is a master of cutting off the ring but his movement on the inside and in using tricks to manipulate the movement of his opponent with his footwork seem inferior to Ward, at least to me.

Something like...

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— for the reasons stated above. Game changing movement to facilitate offence... leaps from pseudo-defensive movement patterns to sudden gallivanting offence on a whim.

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— getting old but still an amazing repertoire of movement patterns and understanding/anticipating the tells of his opponents. Incredible control of range and a sixth sense for defence, a lot of which stems first and foremost from his movement.

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— slick, fast and a surgical looking movement style. His movement is cat like and even patronising. He looks the easiest of the bunch while being evasive and staying in range to actually land offence, but in some ways his method is mechanical and doesn't open up the amount of opportunities that Loma's movement does.

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— Grandmasterful footwork in stalking his prey, and he's as good at doing that as GGG is, but is fleeter of foot P4P in general and better at sort of feinting with his feet, and as such I give him the edge here over GGG who just misses out on the top 5 to...

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— jack of all trades mover. Nothing spectacular but he just has an overall immense understanding of how to manipulate his opponent whether that be side to side, in straight lines or in circles.

 

It's hard to disagree with your lists, although I feel Floyd and Wlad is a hard one to call for ring generalship. Floyd has every answer it seems, so that gives him a strong argument for #1, but Wlad can kind of cheat and not have to show every conceivable answer because his natural power and superb jab is so controlling that there isn't a fight in which his opponent has no hope in hell of trying to enforce their will, and thus their ring generalship, on the fight.

 

This is a good point. I did mention in my reasons that Kovalev has surprisingly patient and versatile offence, considering his brutal @rsenal. The way in which he can exercise control is very impressive.

 

On your point regarding Gonzalez and Estrada, and why that gives him the edge over everybody else. You're right that Gonzalez has moved it up a notch and can now stalk his prey while being less at risk of getting tagged than the others, which in turn allows him to use his offence more. He's very difficult to deter, like Pacquiao. That's a big part of offence; can you continue to apply your offence in the face of counterfire. So yes, it's a cogent argument.

I feel like GGG will be more easily deterred from his aggressive intentions than Kovalev or Roman, so perhaps he should be slightly behind both with the other things being equal enough for the most part. GGG can often have a sort of stop-start approach to his boxing, so if somebody can keep sticking him he'd have to reset a lot more often than Gonzalez. I think it's GGG's carefully placed and efficient offence with consistently loaded power that impresses me so much — he

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catch the opponent clean in every single fight because he possesses heat-seeking missiles — but we're yet to see how he can produce offensively in a real war against a top level opponent. We've seen that with Gonzalez.

 

Generally, Lomachenko might have the best (potential) tangible skill-set in boxing right now. It's his heart and toughness that I question. I know he's new to the pro ranks but there are some signs out there that he could be found wanting in future wars with great opposition. We'll just have to see.

 

Yeah. Ward would probably freeze GGG's offence considerably. But still, the jury is out because perhaps GGG would have the heart to overcome that one key weakness in his offence and go after it. Also, I think even Ward gets tagged at some point. GGG always tags them. If GGG could get Ward into trouble even once, does he have the finishing credentials to end it?

I'd heavily favour Ward, for the reasons you've stated... and will edit my list in light of this discussion.