What stylistic traits of your favorite fighter impress you the most?

I like a fighter who can whittle away the confidence of other fighters.

Example: Hagler v Hearns
Hagler v Mugabi
Hagler v Roldan

 

With Salvador Sanchez, I liked his cool and confidence. When you saw him during the ring introductions, there was always a little smile he gave as he waved to the crowd that showed he was genuinely pleased to be there. No edginess, no pacing the ring relentlessly, none of that. Cool as a cucumber.

Especially fighting the way he did at the championship level, confidence played an enormous part in his game; it never bothered him to fall a little behind early, as he had the confidence in both his abilities and his conditioning to come back down the stretch and run the tables on his opponent in the championship rounds. Sometimes the fights were close, as with Ford and Cowdell, but his demeanor was the same for them as it was for blowout efforts like Castanon and Lopez. The singularity of purpose regardless of circumstance proves the confidence.

 

My favorite and imo most effective style is the boxer-puncher with size, reach and power. They take no risk of damage behind their long distance keeping jab and peck away at their opponent from range with power punches.
A great example of this is V. Klitschko vs Arreola where Klitschko beat the stuffing out of Arreola and destroyed his face while taking no damage himself.

Or when Lewis fought Holyfield and Tyson where he made it nearly impossible for them to get on the inside and just beat the stuffing out of them outside of their punching range.

 

The way Duran mixed Offense with Defense without missing a beat was very impressive.

 

Add the sneer factor in, and I'd agree.

 

Not an all time great nor my favorite fighter, but I really loved watching the boxing mastery of Meldrick Taylor. He was quick both in hand and foot, and threw great hooks and combinations. Really a graceful technician to watch.

 

I agree. You seem to use his sneer factor to obscure how great he was technically. He was truly an artist, the fighters fighter.

 

Not really, I added that in because I think it served a valuable purpose, which was to intimidate his opponents and provide the fans with a kind of awe factor.

And when added to his technical ability along with his almost inhuman ability to take a punch (at least in the Barkley fight) it made for a very complete package.

Note: The two fights that astonish me in terms of fighters having taken punishment without going down, were Duran against Barkley and Ali against Foreman. Foreman laid some body punches onto Ali that would have knocked a wall down.

 

Not my favorite but loved the way a prime Braxton was always smiling as he slowly cut the ring off and beat the hell out of people.

 

Man, hard to say a real favorite, I have always been fond of Monzon though. He is just so steady, he doesn't attack with fast combos in and out. He just slowly picks his opponent apart steadily throwing punches, doesn't get to excited, he is just patient and knows he will prevail. He walks his opponent down from mid range going backwards or forward. He is truly an impressive fighter.

 

A truly great...and painfully misunderstood and unestimated great fighter...his record says it all. The King of Cool.

 

Sam Langford basically had everything except height.

Make him 6’ 1’’ and he is pretty much unbeatable!

 

I really like fighters that increase volatility and thrive on it. They seemingly "gamble", force exchanges, make life difficult for themselves, put pressure on opponents, throw a ******-wrench into the works so that "normal" boxing doesn't apply anymore, and count on their ability to improvise and think quick to thrive in that environment,

See: Duran, Calzaghe, Mayorga, etc.

Where Mayweather, Wladimir Klitschko and Hopkins seek to play "small" they seek to play big and win doing it.

 

My favourite fighters are those who are willing to go to war to win. Fights like Hagler - Hearns, Ward-Gatti, Ali-Frazier, Foreman-Lyle... the list goes on and on.