Skill to me is being proficient in ALL areas. Tyson WAS proficient in all areas. Hand and foot speed? Blurring. Power? Unquestionable. Technique? To the tee. Movement? Brilliant. Variety of punches? yes, in spades. Punch resistance? Yep. He had whiskers. He was fan friendly yet purists could respect him due to how skilled he was.
I agree that Tyson ticked all the boxes apart from one. The most important one. Surely the skill to be most proficient in has to be the skill to apply skills to suit all situations? Did he ever win a fight without trying to knock the other mans brain loose? I think fighters preoccupied with power are not making the most of their skill. Tyson had skill, lots of it but he became too fond of power to bail him out to be regarded as someone who "if all else failed" could box and win by outscoring the other man.
Coz people got conned into thinking Holy was a good 'boxer' himself - he wasn't and it really showed against a fighter with real skills and who wasn't a big slow oaf - Holyield IMO gets schooled by the likes of the Ezz's and Jersey's and Mongoose's etc - Infact either of those guys would be amongst probably the top 5 most skilful to have fought at heavy
I would actually say that Sam Langford was the most complete. He had to compensate for the fact that he was 5' 6'', and that was literally his only weakness as a fighter. Make him 6’ 1’’ without loosing anything, and he is virtually unbeatable.
I don't believe Ali was particularly skilled. His secrets lay in his natural talents, speed and instinct. Skill can be acquired through instruction and practice. You can't teach anyone what Ali brought to the ring.
Physically blessed skills or developed skills ? Ali had exceptional god given size, speed, strength, chin and reflexes .. hard to top that combination. Physical plus learned might be Jack Johnson, the best defensive heavyweight that possibly ever lived ..
I know there was an earlier post being pretty down on Evander Holyfield's abilities but to me he was almost a complete boxer, at Cruiserweight and then heavyweight thought probably not quite at the same extent at HW. He had every shot in the book, jab, cross, hook,uppercuts, bodyshots,etc, and able to throw them in combination with good handspeed. Throw in a study chin and decent stamina and footwork and he was overall an almost complete fighter.
In my opinion, Gene Tunney was the most skilled heavy ever. He had it all: speed, power, defense, jab, combos, footwork, solid chin, and endurance. In addition to all of that, he was highly disciplined and the most intelligent fighter of all time.
Well, to be fair, he only developed that move when the steriods made his hair fall out soon after he won the HW title and he found that his bald head could be used as just another offensive weapon.
I agree with you. Holmes showed the way to beat Holyfield: Draw him in and counter. Larry was too old to be effective enough to win, but he had the right idea. I like Holyfield though; tremendous heart.