Underrated Skills Of Legendary Fighters

Great call on Whitaker. He fought 10 rounds with a broken jaw to land some hellacious body shots on prime Trinidad.

 

Hearns’s jab. He used it to befuddle a prime Leonard for 6 rounds. Then he used it to outbox Hill and end his long reign at 175.

 

I think Hearns is well known for having a great jab

 

I'm going to say Jack Johnson. I feel he's underrated in two different ways:

1. People know these are two of his best attributes, yet, in a fantasy fight, they are almost non-existent as counting for much of anything, Ring IQ and Defense. I hear people say, he would be easily befuddled by a modern style, as if, he would be THAT perplexed (considering there were conventional boxers), but what's more, that he wouldn't be able to easily adapt. Like he couldn't bridge his parrying, leaning back style into a hybrid of something else entirely, or just use that as is and adapt mid fight. Be more aggressive as needed, roughhouse as needed. When I see Johnson, I see someone who great had radar/defense, and a very intelligent fighter. People get too in love with flashy, eye catching stuff, and sometimes, other attributes can still trump those. So anyways, not really what the TS was intending I think. I categorize these as known, so not underrated to Johnson, but their effectiveness is underrated in a fantasy fight.

2. People don't mention these attributes as much, and I think they are underrated qualities of Johnson. His reflexes and punching power. People act like he didn't always play it safe, carry people for his pleasure or because of the "times". They act like he hit like a MW or something. I would submit, When he sat down on his punches, and got aggressive, it looked scary. I'm not saying he's Foreman here, but for my money, he hit harder or as hard as some in people top 10 HW of all time. Next is reflexes, which to me, seems rather obvious. I've never boxed, nor trained, nor much more than casual stuff with friends and a gym a few times. But I've played other sports my whole life, and I feel like I'm good at seeing talent and a natural athlete when I see one. That is what I see with Johnson, and it's beyond clear to me, how fast he was for his size. Even in the poor quality film we have, at time, when he wanted to, I think the term cat like reflexes isn't far off.

There you go, just my thoughts on the subject. Good thread and responses so far.

 

Calzaghe footwork. Excellent stuff