Most Technically Perfect Boxers

Ayub Kalule
Harold Johnson

 

In his prime, Marvin Hagler was the most perfect boxer I have seen.
Salvador Sanchez too was impressive.
And Thomas Hearns has to be there, to out box Leonard throughout 14 rounds you have to be perfectly skilled.

 

Would you mind watching the fight and telling us where Jones' left foot was?

The moment of the punch Jones' head and upper body were moving forward while he was throwing a left hook. Watch the replays.

You are making things up. No reply from any angle showed anything like this. Jones was looking in the direction where his left hook hit Tarver's head.

At no other fight Tarver showed such move. Plus it was impossible for him to do, as he doubled up and closed his eyes and from that position as he was straightening up, he stepped forward and to the right, without even seeing Jones.

Tarver threw a right jab which Jones deflected with his left hand, and so Tarver's hand was extended forward and downwards in a position, where he would need to pull it back, turn his body clockwise, and position himself to throw it again. That would take him another second or so, when Jones had already finished throwing his right.

Those are 4 BS claims you have made without even caring to watch the replays again, so that to speak up facts, not lies that are contradicted by facts.

 

Ricardo Lopez is about as close to perfect as anyone that I've seen in terms of the way he delivered his punches to both the body and head, and in terms of how he was able to avoid punches. He wasn't necessarily that fast, but his ability to time an opponent, and create openings for his punches both at range and in the trenches was something to behold.

Although he wasn't particularly gifeted, I think Maurice Hope warrants a mention, too. His punching technique was about as sound as it gets.

 

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theres the replay, didnt see one that just showed the round without sound effects.

 

:rofl

 

I don't need a youtube, when I have two normal quality versions of the fight with replays from different cameras, and a VirtualDubMod to watch them frame by frame if needed.

 

''HADOKEN!'' :rofl

 

:rofl:rofl

 

Tunney, his defense was amazing.

 

Sweet Saoul Mamby had significant success and a lengthy career doing things by the book. He did possess significant advantages in handspeed and slipping ability, but he was also somebody who provided good instructional material for study.

As a southpaw boxer, I felt Jim Watt did a great deal with what he had available. He was slower than most lightweights, possessed average height and reach, yet had a fine right jab, and outboxed the fastest man in the sport when he decisioned Howard Davis Jr. He also did a superb job in a career ending decision loss to Arguello, a tactician known for chewing up southpaw opposition and spitting out the bones. Although he did lose the title, Watt performed well, boxing while retreating, not his usual approach to a match, and became one of only two of Arguello's opponents to go 15 rounds in a losing effort (Arturo Leon).

Watt's fellow Scot, Ken Buchanan, was a superb right handed technician, and Duran has identified Buchanan as his finest opponent. (I wouldn't mind viewing a replay of Buchanan/Watt again.)

Benny Leonard was the definitive orthodox champion of his era.

When considering how to answer a question like this, ask whose films would be best used as a training device. Things like great reflexes, an extraordinary reach, and naturally awesome power can be inborn traits. Who has achieved success by trumping physical advantages with superior boxing technique?

Vilomar Fernandez was an amazingly quick and gifted boxer who made few mistakes, but he was also an extraordinarily short armed boxer who could yet outperform much longer armed opponents from long range by outjabbing them. At times in his matches with the much taller and longer armed speedsters Hilmer Kenty and Howard Davis Jr., Vilomar was able to do exactly that. (Most observers believed Fernandez did enough to earn decision wins in those bouts.)

Dwight Muhammad Qawi had the best counterjab of any boxer I watched while following the sport closely. He was masterful at cutting off the ring, and splitting his opponent's defense by keeping his lead foot between his target's feet.

There are too many others to mention, but I wanted to stimulate those of you who have far more knowledge of boxing history than I do, to "think outside the box" a little bit, in offering some creative answers.

 

Who did better against Vilomar, Howard or Hilmer?

 

Most technically perfect. Juan Manuel Marquez and Bernard Hopkins. These fighters should be studied by todays young prospects.

Jones, Mayweather, Ali, and others were pretty unorthodox in terms of style and technique. They are technically brilliant, but not in a textbook type of way.

 

It wasn't really a matter of who did better against Vilomar, but who he performed more poorly against, and that would be Hilmer.

Fernandez was a dedicated fitness fanatic. Even when not training for a match, he was a gym rat simply keeping himself in shape. However, that's no kind of substitute for regular competitive activity, and Vilomar was frequently not sharp, due to the long stretches of inactivity he was notorious for. This sort of ring rust is especially detrimental to his intricate level of precision ringmanship. After he nearly dethroned a peak Duran, he couldn't get any matches against competitive opposition. This was much further aggravated when he actually did win a decision over peak Arguello, a challenge Vilomar probably secured only because Alexis was already a champion whose title wasn't on the line.

After the Arguello win, Fernandez had to wait nearly a year and a half before securing a date against a preliminary nobody, then his match against Howard. Vilomar didn't display any ring rust against Howard, in part by completely surprising Davis with his opening round charge, winging Davis to the deck with a second round hook delivered from behind Howard. I don't remember Fernandez taking a backwards step in that one, completely defying what Howard expected of him off the Duran fight. Despite actually making the fight, producing all the aggression in the match, the CBS executives who signed Davis to that foolish iron clad contract out of the Olympics saw to it that Howard received the patently absurd decision.

The better part of another year went by before Fernandez got another match, this time a second crack at the LW Title against Kenty. Now, Fernandez started true to form. His early round legwork was some of the very finest I've ever seen, like he was boxing on springs.

When I think of diminutive boxers with little power and short arms who specialize in outmanuevering and outjabbing taller opposition from long range behind a quick jab, Miguel Canto, Tyrone "Butterfly" Crawley, Wille Pep, and Vilomar Fernandez come to mind right away.

I enjoy a spellbinding slugfest as much as anybody else, but these are the sort of boxers who make me want to take notes. At his very best, Fernandez might have outboxed Kenty stablemate Tommy Hearns from outside. He was that skilled.

Anyhow, the color commentator (I think it was Gil Clancy on CBS), quickly began harping on the fact of Vilomar's inactivity, as he was getting increasingly flatfooted when the middle rounds approached. There was never any question of Kenty being able to stop Fernandez, but Hilmer was seemingly threatening to turn the match into a scoring rout. Then, at the outset of the championship rounds, Hilmer suddenly developed a leg cramp, which impaired his mobility, and resulted in him falling down as Fernadez hit him. The referee waived it off as a slip, though it appeared to be a legal KD. Although Kenty was clearly hampered, Fernandez remained workmanlike, failing to capitalize on a golden opportunity.

The guess is that chronic inactivity had robbed Vilomar of the late round energy needed to attack sufficiently to secure the decision. Still, the commentators thought Fernandez had done enough to win the title. But Hilmer took the decision by a margin of four to six points on all scorecards.

Vilomar Fernandez might be acclaimed as an ATG, if he'd been around in the 1930s and 1940s. He certainly wouldn't have had any problems getting matches in such an era. By contrast, Willie Pep might have needed to take up taxi cab driving to support himself in the postwar era. Who would have been willing to box him, at a time when a single defeat or victory could cause a boxer to be avoided like the plague, by managers and promoters?

 

Senya-Roy, you have the clip that Icemann gave us. Watch the slow motion and you will see that Jones' left foot was inside of Tarver's right foot... you will also see his left his left hand dangling low. For confirmation of every other observation that I made in the previous post, watch the clip.

No better yet, don't watch it. Those blindest are those who refuse to see. So have your best and most trusted friend who knows boxing watch it and he will tell you what mistakes your hero made.