Skilled Heavyweights

Just watched Witherspoon last night vs Bonecrusher Smith. I can't recall but wouldn't be surprised if the Promoter tried to withhold his purse for that non effort. He was really good when on and motivated though.

 

Holyfield had good all-round skills. Zora Folley.

 

True. At his best, Bowe was one of the skilled in-fighters of any Heavy I've seen. One of the most skilled Heavies period, though he lacked in other intangible areas.

 

Heavyweights whose skills would be noteworthy in any weight class are few and far between.

Also most of them are actualy smaller fighters stepping up

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For my money the following names:

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Jack Johnson

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Jack Dempsey

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Joe Louis

Jersey Joe Walcott

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Muhamad Ali

Mike Tyson

 

Yeah, a fishy fight from Tim's legend has it. Tho he put it together better than Page and Dokes and the other underachievers he still disappoints me. The whole three of them could have done much much much bigger things.

 

Where did you find that match?

 

Very good pick! Of all heavys i've seen Folley was the best from a technically point of view. Really a textbook type of fighter.

And Evander was really good at the basics, something that wasn't always evident as his heart seemed to take over from his brain as soon as he was tagged.

Another fighter I remember as a pretty good technician was Thad
Spencer. Good combination hitter who always worked of the jab.

If skillful supersized heavys are mentioned Buster Mathis sr. was the first of this species and maybe the most skillful. Alas he lacked the mentality.
But of these fighters only Evander made it all the way which indicates that allround skills isn't that important in a division where one punch can change the course of events.
There just aren't any hw versions of Harold Johnson, SRR, SRL, Carlos Ortiz or Ricardo Lopez. For heavys it's more a case of finding a style that enables you to use your strenghts rather than develop a flawless technique.

 

Probably one of the most insightful things I've read on this forum. I extend a warm welcome as well.

I would say that Foreman is the perfect example of that.

 

James Jeffries was a trained sprinter who could run 100 yards in ten seconds, and could high jump over six feet.

Now that's skilled!

 

Page-Stan Ward and Page-Evangelista are good fights, but the fight you would really want to see is Page-Marty Monroe, that is the best Page performance out there. His Scott LeDoux fight was also one of his best moments.

 

JJWalcott was one of the best skilled with power but was a bit eratic for various reasons...an on JJW could upset anyone, unfortunately he had to fight the divisions top punchers in Louis and Marciano. Ezzard Charles was also one of the most skilled. Toney at 5"9 and overweight and 38-39 yrs old is still a force today vs some very big men yet he holds his own pretty good

 

Jersey Joe he could things other fighters could only dream about.