most athletically gifted and well rounded fighter o.a.t., i nominate gerald mccellan

The guy was very gifted it showed in the way he moved. I loved his fight with the Hawk.

 

er...maybe having zero defense.

 

Most athletically gifted? Not a ****ing chance.

He was a borderline if not a full blown 190 cruiserweight fighting at MW. His presence, power and chin mostly came from that.

Damned good fighter, but most athletically gifted ever? Negative.

 

His weakness was that his chemistry showed he was not able to take punches. It could have been a fluke rupture in his brain caused by the perfect punch, or it could have been a flaw in his chemistry that was exploited, but he was very exciting to watch. The fight with Benn could have easily been stopped after Benn was knocked out of the ring and things could have been different.
The one thing about Mclellan was that he, like Tyson, had a very angry personality, and he tortured dogs for fighting. He was a rough ghetto type dude.

 

x2

 

More like his brain was bouncing around in his skull from insane weight draining.

 

I never really heard that. He was a super middle, never really appeared to be a huge one, but that certainly could have contributed to it.

 

Steward has mentioned in constantly in the years since the Benn fight. :huh

 

Sugar Ray Leonard or Roy Jones..and remember, it's most "athletically gifted" not "the best"..

 

The most atheletically gifted fighter is Roy Jones. Maybe not well rounded, by far the most gifted.

 

I don't have so much problem with the the mention of his athleticism in high regard as I do the mention of him as the total package, or even a well-rounded boxer, period. He started off that way and seemed to be heading down that path with Manny Steward, but once Steward was out of the fray he devolved quickly into a right hand bomber who'd likely have lost to most elite fighters.

 

He was rather easy to hit although his granite chin made up for it (as seen against Julian Jackson the first time).

I also think that he tended to fade late in fights, possibly due to his extreme weight draining. There's no real way to prove this though since the Benn loss can be attributed to his brain injury and the early career losses to simple inexperience, and most other fights of his rarely went past the very first round.

His career was cut short so it's tough to judge his true abilities. Certainly not based on beating a Gilbert Baptist who had come to the fight on short notice, instead of promising prospect LaMar Parks who may have tested McClellan.

 

Wow that is a strong statement!

He had a bad defense. Good handspeed, average reflexes.

He had great power and a great chin.

I dont see where u get this opinion from.

 

GMAN had zero defence!

Conteh was quite athletically gifted. But in terms of an obvious answer it has to be Roy Jones.