I think faster than SRL, with Camacho it´s a toss-up. Taylor was scary in his prime, I watched today the 1st JCC- fight, he looked lightening fast...
Camacho I'd say was slightly faster and a more skilled fighter P4P. And Meldrick may have had faster combos than Leonard, but not more damaging.
this is key. i think taylor was faster than both, but he lacked the pop of leonard or the sting of camacho imo
Taylor's may have been quicker, but Camacho and Leonard's combos were more impressive to me because they more often threw combos with power and leverage behind them, maintaining speed, while Taylor more often threw arm flurries.
Meldrick did fast flurries, but they did not look like the hard punches of Leonard, or the fast stunning punches of Hector when he was at 130
When Meldrick Taylor threw those flurries they were eye catching and lightening fast. With that said they were often slaps. His lefthook especially was mostly a slapping type of punch withoug much concussive power. I agree that Camacho`s were more impressive because he had a little more pop on them. RL was bigger and very quick for a Welterweight but I dont think he can match the pure speed of Camacho and Taylor.
another quality post man. I would add that ray's punches were slower but also MUCH more powerful than camachos and taylors. duranimal is gonna hate me but leonard's power:speed ratio is one of the best in history. not really as fast as the others but he more than compensated with his sharpness.
The other thing with Taylor was he'd throw those combos and stop and admire his work. There are no timeouts in boxing, but this guy took a breather like it was between sets in a tennis game. It must have frustrated his trainer Benton a ton because he'd stand there with his chin straight up and those hands down and not move his legs. He could have avoided getting hit so much by bringing those hands back higher or moving his feet. He had fast hands but brought them back too low as well. Kind of like Breland and Davis. Throw a 6 punch combo and land 4 but his hands got lower and lower and lower. Once they face opponents that have that rare ability to fire back simultaneously in the middle of those exchanges, they are in no position to absorb & get hit clean. Offensive juggernauts only & to win they fight like 95% offense. Lower that % with top notch opponents and they are the one having to absorb just completely changes everything. I just think this style w/o a defense is on par with the punchers--when their parachute starts to open when the opponent is still there in the 7th round in a grueling fight. It just changes everything and subtracts the main assets.
No. Both were faster than Taylor IMO. Ray actually committed to all his combos and threw them with evil intentions, whereas Mel often was arm punching. Check out the combo Leonard KO'd Andy Price with. Thrown with full power and STILL blindingly fast. As for Camacho, look no further than their respective fights with Howard Davis. Davis was able to match speed with Taylor, whereas Camacho made Davis look like a sloth. So no, Taylor wasn't as fast as either one. Taylor was LIGHTNING fast, don't get me wrong, but I tend to think his speed is overrated by those who say he had the fastest hands ever. I'd say he had the 4th fastest hands of all time. Roy, Camacho, and Leonard were all faster. And prime Mosley was pretty damn close to Taylor in terms of handspeed. Shane might have been faster in fact.
