Two-way jab clinics/fencing duels.

A summit of jab artists is hardly the guaranteed bore that many seem to believe. The following are just a few of the more than decent match-ups between elite talents whose use of the most basic (and oft called the most important) punch in boxing was a primary strength and strategic highlight.

Fill in the blanks, please. :good (and nominate some additional ones)

note: getting the best of the jab battle doesn't necessarily mean a numerical edge (in either # landed or % of connects). It means whoever in your opinion made the biggest mark on the fight with their jab, which can theoretically be done while both landing fewer and less efficiently...if the jab is being effectively used to negate the opponent's tactics, open up cuts, directly set up more damaging and difference-making power shots with consistency, etc.

Thomas Hearns vs. Virgil Hill

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: Hill, perhaps, slightly.

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: ________

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: Hearns UD. 116-112, 115-113, 115-113

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: ________ (post your score if available)
Jab stats: unavailable

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Jermain Taylor vs. Winky Wright

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: Wright, a jab specialist, but Taylor was renowned for his as well.

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: ________

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: Draw. 115-113, 113-115, 114-114.

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: ________ (post your score if available)
Jab stats: Taylor 41 of 308, 13% / Wright 103 of 335, 31%

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Oscar De La Hoya vs. Ike Quartey

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: Quartey, by some margin. (though DLH's was acknowledged to be very good)

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: ________

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: De La Hoya SD. 116-112, 116-113, 114-115.

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: ________ (post your score if available)
Jab stats: Quartey 117 of ? / De La Hoya 91 of ? - complete stats unavailable...only the power shots have thrown & landed published...not jabs or total punches (from which jabs thrown can obviously be deduced by subtracting the power thrown)

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Wow, really?

DLH vs. Quartey was a huge fight. (should've been a unification)

Hearns was a 3-1 underdog and considered shot enough that Manny Steward refused to be in his corner, before the Hill upset.

Winky is probably JT's third most career defining rival, and their draw his most important night along with Hopkins I & II and Pavlik I & II.

 

I'd recommend all three, but just know what you have in store: highly skilled technical & tactical clashes where the goal of each combatant was to establish their jab and work off it. Don't go in expecting slugfests. (though all three do feature some nice exchanges here and there)

 

In all three match-ups, there are moments where either man could be said to have been out-jabbing the other, in effectiveness if not going by the stats. However, the first question posed in the OP is whose jab made the bigger difference overall across twelve rounds. Then from there question 2 seeks to examine whether there is a correlation between winning the jab battle against someone whose bread and butter is the jab (like attempting to swap "hooks with a hooker", as you often hear advised against...or to draw the lead from a natural counter-puncher to counter them in turn) and beating them.

 

Yeah, the jab was never quite as instrumental a part of Toney's game as for some of these guys (his a main assets being his versatility, infighting, slippery defense, counter timing, and chin - all coalescing into a style that never lent itself to him really needing to ever refine his jab beyond 'serviceable'), and he was actually outjabbed rather comprehensively several times in the course of his career.

Now, if you look at McCallum vs. Kalambay I & II - whoa. Two masters, showing off the art.

 

Perfect example!!!

The Truth not only took away the champ's jab in a startling manner, he dished out a taste of the same medicine Holmes prescribed his victims and beat him up with the jab.

Also interestingly proves that a jab artist can be out jabbed but still find a way to win (unless you think Williams deserved the nod) by quickly adapting to a greater than usual focus on body work.