I have seen many great jabs in heavyweight boxing and I think Vlads is one of the best 1) Vlad , Most powerfull Jab I have seen,very consistant, 81 reach seems to find the range and hard to counter because it goes right back into place and even though Vlad is conservative and does not shuffle or show-off he has good feet in and out. 2) Holmes, powerfull jab with an occasional thump attatched, 2nd hardest jab I have seen but on the defensive side Holmes dropped it often. good feet 3) For speed and multiples, Ali had it, it was a fast cutting jab but not as powerfull as Vlad or Holmes but Ali's jab was not easy to counter. Best Feet 4)Sonny Liston...Strong Jab, great reach but slower than the rest 5)Joe Louis...Louis had a strong jab and it was backed up by quite a powerfull arsenal 6)Gene Tunney very good jab, one of the best up to that point and beyond but Gene had very good feet as well. 7) Pinklon Thomas...very strong jab good speed. Decent movement.
I'd say both holmes and liston had better jabs, possibly lewis as well. However wlad jab may be more important to him than it was to either holmes or listons where to them, by that i mean is that its the key to the whole of wlad game as it allows him to keep fighters under control and more importantly away from his chin, without it he have been knocked out even more than he has been
Weird as it may sound, but in a way it's comparing apples to oranges. A guy like Liston had a great, thudding jab but was slow with it. Ali, the other way around. Wlad is somewhere in between, but his jab is up there with anyone, no question about it. Wlad sets the pace, imposes his will and makes the opponent box the way Wlad wants, mostly with the jab. In that sense he is similar to Holmes.
I dont think too much of it ,he doesn't step in behind it ,its more of a peck .I couldnt rate it up there , with Holmes ,Liston,Louis,Ali, etc . And last night was a case of a very good fighter looking a million dollars against , a moderate fighter imo.# Any one can look good against mediocrity.
When you have a jab that lands as hard as most fighters right cross it is a virtual nuclear weapon. Louis, Liston and Lewis all had this horible tool.
That's how I feel about it...you could argue Wlad v Liston v Lewis in the jab department all day. I will say this. I've no problem with somebody picking his as the #1 jab. The way he deploy's it is remarkable. I love the final snap.
What's really amazing is how he basically dominates with TWO punches: his terrific jab and powerful straight right. He may indeed have the best jab ever, but I defer to the experts on this one.
Vlad's jab is slow. Unless he gets it up to decent speed, it can be picked off and countered by a straight right. It is a powerful jab, but the best still belong to Holmes, Liston, Ali and Lennox Lewis.
Liston slowed down markedly after 1959. Foreman showed a powerful jab on film. I don't know how effectively he could use it to control the tempo of the fight,but it was there.
Liston's jab was a little harder, but slower. Holmes jab was a little faster, but not as powerful. I think Wlad has a top 5 ATG heavyweight jab. You could argue top three, or make a case for #1. Wlad's jab has speed, power, accuracy, range, and can be fired multiple times thought the course of a fight. There really is no drawback to any part of Wlad's jab as everything is in the very good to excellent category. Wlad's jab is a weapon that no fighter has solved. I doubt Wlad will ever lose a match on points, or even lose a round where he was out jabbed.
One of the very best, no doubt. Only Louis, Holmes, Seldon, Thomas, Ali, and Liston (especially) rank higher in my opinion.