Top-3 least skilled HW beltholders of all time

John fvcking Ruiz.

 

Marciano- He had few skills. He just flailed away and beat the hell out of his opponents.

 

wilder, stiverne,ruiz

 

Braddock had heart, a chin and a decent right hand ..

Ingo had a right hand.

Carnera had height, reach, strength, conditioning, recuperative powers , a decent jab and heart


They all had something ..

 

Jess Willard...He used his obvious size and reach advantage very well though. ...and he could punch. He said in an interview that he thought "leaning away" from a punch was his primary defensive skill.

 

Do you mean John "The Quiet Man"Ruiz 2 times WBA Heavyweight Champion (Should have been 4 times).. Who put Evander Holyfield on the canvas, something Lennox Lewis never came near to doing in 24rds. John Ruiz who knocked fvck out of Hasim Rahman, Andrew Golota & Holyfield. who was robbed against Nikolay Valuev & Ruslan Chagaev...Then you are wrong!

 

You have basically contradicted yourself here!

 

Have to disagree here.

There is a good reason why so few fighters like Marciano are successful at the highest level.

Pressure fighters are ten a penny, but ones who can do it while being hard to hit, come along once in a blue moon.

Marciano was a very skilled man in his own way.

A silk purse made out of a sows ear.

 

The extreme opinions on Marciano are absurd.

He was neither unbeatable by all regardless of size & skill, nor a complete rub who had no talent. That is a joke too.

The best he fought, with the exception of Louis, were not far past prime. Walcott & Charles x 2, Moore..Were highly skilled.

Rocky was unpredictable & was harder to hit than often thought.
Was Ali wrong about him when sparring years after Rocky retired?

Besides great heart & endurance with a heavy work rate when necessary...
Even so, unless Marciano was really large, as opposed to small with no reach...

He had to have real skills. The crouching & counterpunching, feinting & drwaing folks in were not guiless wailing. You can watch videos where they point out his set ups & abilities. Jeez.

 

Peoples' ideas about what qualifies as "skills" baffle me. Skills are based on individual fighter's physical gifts and limitations and are thus not easy to equate with other, differently gifted fighters… i.e. Tyson, Frazier, Marciano were never going to be great stick and move guys.

Marciano, for instance, was highly skilled. If we was just a come forward slugger with a lot of heart we would not know his name.

Even a guy like John Ruiz had a lot of skill, skills which best exploited his physical abilities. He was A LOT stronger than he looked, had a quick, stiff right hand, good stamina and really good sense of distance. Also, he had excellent reflexes. He was able, with help, to mold these abilities into a style which worked very well… for him, if not the viewer.

 

Wilder?

 

Very solid observation.

Tommy Loughran is lauded as one of the most astute fighters of all time.

He took the boxing book, assimilated it, then looked for the flaws in it.

While most cuties laud technically perfect fighters, he praised guys like Marciano and Tommy Jackson, because they were unpredictable.