Most fundamentally sound fighter..

Graham did have an iron chin and could take the occasional clean punch without it having any effect. If only we had film of Tippy Larkin, who had a glass jaw and got by with pure boxing ability.

 

JM Marquez
Zarate
Ross
Chavez
Jose Torres

Harold Johnson was the first name that sprung to mind though.

 

El Bujia did bring up Harold in post #13 as a superior choice to Gomez, but I agree he should have been one of the first names mentioned, not 14 names down.

If Louis was as fundamentally sound as many believe, then Schmeling would not have pinpointed a glaring flaw to exploit, a flaw Nat Fleischer said Jack Johnson also tipped him off to beforehand.

For me, Charles would probably be the one. Ezz had mobility Louis was lacking in. When prime, he had the numbers of Burley, Moore, Maxim and Walcott (when able to properly motivate himself for Jersey Joe). Take away the Baroudi tragedy, and Lou Gehrig's disease, and heaven knows what he might have achieved. If he was somehow alive and well today (and Bivins is a couple years older than Ezz), he might well have long since become the definitive authority on orthodox boxing technique. I cannot separate his late career decline from the realization that he may have already been affected by the disease which killed him. (He was only diagnosed in 1966, then lived another nine years, an astonishingly long interval for an illness like that.)

 

It is physically impossible for the Lou Gehrig's disease to have hit him during his boxing career. Even in 1959. Charles was not diagnosed with it until 1966, and died in 1974.

It's physically impossible to have early stages of the disease. Once you get it, you have about 5 years to live, 10 tops. I think the Marciano beatdowns in 1954 had a lot to do with his sharp physical decline by 1955.



I do think Charles was the most fundamentally sound fighter. What mistakes did he have in his boxing game? When did Charles ever get 'outboxed' in his prime?

 

Yep, I overlooked that. Him and Ross IMO were the most fundamental sound fighters ever. It took 32 posts until someone mentioned Ross, I forgot him too. Thanks Tin_Ribs!

On the Johnson tipping of thing, I heard it many times, most of the time though with the additional chapter where Schmeling tells Johnson that he already has seen the flaw himself. I think that´s one of the myths surrounding Johnson and not true at all.

 

Aaron pryor's a good place to start, Holyfield aswell

 

:huh

 

I Love it!

 

Probably a minority viewpoint, but i tend to think Conteh would have evolved past Johnson had he been more dedicated.Similar styles, but he had a greater natural feel for the fundamentals and how they can be abused within reason than Harold did.Just not refined over the course of a longer steadier career.

A bit like the earlier comparison with Gomez, who also had much more flair for adapting things while still remaining technically and fundamentally "proper" if not entirely textbook correct.

Ricardo Lopez is the best pick for a top level fighter who relied almost entirely on generic textbook correctness imo.

Other fighters worth mention...Jofre, Kalambay, Arbachakov, the god technician Kalule, Davila, Accavallo...

 

Johnson, for having such a highly touted jab, tended to lead in a bit too much with it for my taste, rather than using it from a minimalist approach to forward movement that better suits the elite pace controllers. One of the reasons I rate Monzon (and to a slightly lesser extent Louis, as Louis had a small technical deficiency of his own when it came to the jab) so highly.

 

That's always been one of the biggest question marks regarding Lopez for me. It's hard to see how he could've been, really, given what he showed. A case where his rigidness and textbook correctness could actually play against him, and one of the reasons I'd probably favor Chang in a matchup between the two.

 

Gilberto Roman?worth a mention too maybe.Good infighter as well as his obvious pure boxing skills.