Very athletic fighters with great fundementals

Great mention and I know that you're a fan of Jeff.

I nominate Sal Sanchez - lovely footwork, good chin, insane stamina, nice balance between offence and defence.

 

Dempsey naturally raw boned wiry as a timber wolf, Rjj lithe long muscled as a cheetah, Walker a bulldog on twinkled toes!

 

Vasyl Lomachenko. There's a video from his amateur days of him repping out one arm pull ups (edit: 9:19). He also competed in sports like wrestling, combat sambo and even knows horseback riding. Amazing overall athlete with great p4p strength. I remember this highlight from back in the day showcasing his training:

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That's a great mention from your good self too. From my era too. I'm going to raise you a Hector Camacho Jr. Fastest feet and hands in boxing at one point, the man was a BLUR. His technique, despite it's flashiness, is easily good enough to make the cut IMO.

 

What about Howie Davis Jnr and Don the Vindaloo Curry?

 

Indeed, they were in the back of my mind. I'm going to play an ace and go for a guy that, surprisingly, has not been mentioned.

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Boom.

I think a common thing is how athleticism has come to be perceived. It's typically seen as those of fast feet and hands that box on the outside but athleticism comes in all shapes and sizes - great chin and punch resistance, speed, power, reflexes, timing, rhythm.

Monzon had great rhythm, timing and ring generalship - he wouldn't be seen in the mould of RJJ but would never be as vulnerable as Roy looked when he came down in weight.

Napoles is just smooth - underrated footwork, great punch variety, great ring generalship and reflexes.

Young Evan Fields, when he was just Ev Patch of Grass, Pernell, JCC all have great athleticism with more than solid fundamentals.

What about guys like Jofre, Barrera, JMM, Canto, Zapata?

 

Yes!!! He is.
Especially when considering he had only two amateur
fights.

 

Other fighters who were great athletes with solid fundamentals:

Salvador Sanchez
Orlando Canizales
Eusebio Pedroza
Luis Manuel Rodríguez
Mark Johnson
Hilario Zapata
Gilberto Román
Miguel Lora
Ernesto Marcel

 

Just based on what I've seen from Leonard and Joe Frazier, I'm guessing most top boxers do poorly in competitions like these when pitted against athletes from other sports. Leonard was amazing in the ring, but you would think he was anout the least gifted athlete out of the bunch here just based off this competition.

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Yeah, it seemed to be a recurring theme in Superstars style tournaments that boxers were amongst the worst:

https://www.thesuperstars.org/

I haven't seen footage of a lot of these, but there's some interesting results in there. John Conteh won the 1974 UK Superstars, and Joe Bugner (who had been a noted athlete) finished third in the first UK version the year earlier.

Scanning some of the results shows that Bob Foster finished last in his (which isn't entirely surprising).

I think to put it in perspective, they were often up against exceptional competitors from other sports where "athleticism" was a pre-requisite.

Leonard clearly hadn't ever sprinted at any level as he started from standing. Gretzky was much quicker than I think he is often given credit for. Pele had exceptional speed as a young player (although obviously was way past his prime), and Borg was noted for being mobile around the court.

Boxing is one of the sports that requires unusual attributes; eg hand-eye coordination, reflexes and a nervous system that reacts unusually to getting hit on the jawline (ie standing upright). They don't have to have great sprinting speed or spring, so it's really just whether or not they are built that way.

 

Wasn't aware of Conteh or Bugner competing in these. Wouldn't mind taking a look at that if footage still exists.

I think that if you choose a single elite from every sports league or sport...NFL, NBA, Boxing, Premier League, etc...and stick them all in a Decathlon, the boxer will probably finish near or at the back of the pack just about every time. As you said, boxing requires unusual attributes that may not carry over into other areas as well.

Kind of nixes the theory that supreme athletes from other sports would have made for successful boxers with an early enough start. The attributes required for boxing are indeed pretty unique.

 

Yeah it's painful to fathom hahaha

 

Lets expand on this over the weekend. I reckon we can dig up a few other great examples between us mate.

 

I

Leonard running style is awful, he looks like a kid who never ran a day in his life, or like he has knees worse than mine.