Greatest Jab ever

I think Holmes or Hearns had an argument for best jab ever.

 

Further still outside.
Bob Foster
Willie Pastrano
Colin Jones
John Conteh

 

Has Monzon’s jab rated a mention yet? A very multi purposed tool to Carlos’ utmost advantage. Busy hands in general and he certainly never stopped putting the jab out there.

 

All four of these guys not only have great jabs but among the most useful sophisticated left hands in the business as far as what I’ve seen anyway.

Emile Griffith
Lionel Rose
Miguel Canto
Fighting Harada

Never forget a great jab doesn’t have to be one that lands often or even at all when the time is right. Working off the jab is more then landing something after making contact.

 

Not to denigrate or malign any of the others mentioned here,...but the "Will O the Wisp" ...the rarely mentioned Willie Pastrano had. in my estimation, the finest and the fastset, most accurate left jab of all....it was said by the sports writers (in the know) at the time, that Willie could tattoo his name, address and zip code on an opponent's face...and why not? After all, that's just about all Willie had in terms of artillery...along with the fastest, most tireless pair of legs, and a titanium steel chin for good measure.....Willie only went down once...that being at the very end of his career, courtesy of a left hook to the liver, thrown by Jose Torres.. For reference, the best example of his jab is probably the 1963 15 round lightheavy weight title fight with Harold Johnson.

 

Great call...Monzon's jab was like him as a fighter...not especially flashy, but uncommonly accurate and extremely effective.

 

The one against Kimio Furesawa, perhaps?

 

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you - noting your King Carlos avatar, very cool - Monzon employed the punch so intelligently as if advertising “101 uses for a jab”, several you might not have even thought of. LOL.

 

Pugguy, in these threads..."the greatest jab"...."the best defense", etc.,....the same names get mentioned all the time...and while I agree with Larry Holmes being the best jabber at heavyweight, there are guys in the lighter weight classes who never get mentioned. It's refreshing to see you give Monzon some credit here....and you're right on target again with mentioning the "intelligent" use of the jab. Always it's Hearns and to a lesser degree, Foster, Louis, etc.,...the flashiest, most spectacilar jabbers...but I maintain that Monzon's jab rates near the top because of the intelligent ay he used it..more effective in the big picture than Hearns and Foster's because Monzon "fought tall" better and more effectively & had a higher ring IQ than them, all important factors in effective jabbing. Likewise, Emile Griffith, Joey Archer, Ken Buchanan, Willie Pastrano,...guys like that who used the jab intelligently...and not just as a spectacular, flashy hard punch. Joey Giardello also had a very effective jab, very much like Ali, who didn't depend strictly on the jab, but used it along with other punches. "whew"....I wish I could say all this without killing you with these wordy, long winded paragraphs, but you get what I'm saying, lolol/

 

Michael, not long winded at all, took less than a min. to read, lol. Excellent post and I can’t say that I’ve properly studied all the fighters mentioned but it sounds like they’re worth more viewing time than I’ve afforded - though it is hard to get spare time to watch stuff - especially since once I start, I find it hard to stop. Lol.

 

Power: Sonny Liston
Overall: Larry Holmes

 

With the way Sonny threw that jab, it seemed nearly impossible to avoid it.

He had good accuracy, plus both his reach and the way he stepped into it made it really long-reaching. It really seemed to bother the hell out of those on the receiving end, even Ali wasn't immune to it (and we all know how great Ali's jab was).

 

Liston's jab was stronger than theirs.