slow champions??

I think you nailed it with Alexis Arguello. Not sure there is a better example, and when you put it into that context, it really makes you see how truly great he was as far as technique goes.

 

Jim Watt is always the first to come to my mind when I see the occasional question about this subject. The best LW between Duran and Arguello, he cleanly took a unanimous decision over the championship distance against Howard Davis, Jr. Howard was the fastest man in boxing, rated as such over early 1980s contemporaries like Olympic teammate SRL, Benitez, Hearns and other noted speedsters of the era. Watt was considered to be slower than most 135 pounders, but he had a well cultivated and timed right jab, toughness, excellent physical strength and superb conditioning. For me, he'll always be the poster boy for how to school a much faster challenger.

He deserves credit for taking Arguello the 15 round limit in losing the title. He was uncharacteristically forced into continual retreat by the taller and harder punching Alexis, but it was a slow retreat, always covered by that right jab. Everybody knew he was going to lose the title, but like Barney Ross, he acquitted himself with honor.

For whatever it's worth, the very fast Bubba Busceme later said after his challenge of Arguello that the one difference between what he expected beforehand and what he actually experienced was that Alexis was a little quicker than he expected. Arguello's feet weren't fast, but he showed some pretty good hand speed in losing to Vilomar Fernandez. I suspect his hand speed sometimes gets underrated a bit because of how fluid he could be. His punches were clearly much faster than Watt's, but Jim made him box with caution.

 

Great champions always rely on timing. The key to boxing is understanding distance; right behind that is timing. Timing is more important than fast.