after watching Joe Louis fights I would have to say Joe Louis had by far the best arsenal of various power punches,great jab, he had a short left hook a long left hook, a left to the body and a right to the body ,a powerfull short right hand,crisp and percise, a great right and left uppercut and fast hands, the fastest of the power punchers, Marciano had 2 good hands and a few real weird punches that were delivered to unorthdox places,elbows,heart,neck,arms.ears. Lennox Lewis had a great right and solid jab, good hook, thrown in buches affective, Dempsey had a great hook and a great right,Dempsey also liked to punch the heart,chest,kidneys,neck,ears... Ali had good hand speed, decent right and hook but lacked real power, Foreman had power in both hands but his shots were wide and telegraphed,George had a good Jab....I still have to say Louis was head and shoulders above the pack, Thoughts
Louis and Tyson are ahead of everyone else if seen by a small margin. I'd suggest that Louis edges it, I think his punches were technically a bit better, shorter - although you could argue that Tyson is more complete in terms of available punches moulded into combinations.
:good Agreed, Louis is just a step above the rest. Tyson and Lewis also had a complete arsenal although Lewis neglected the left hook a bit during some parts of his career, and Tyson didn't have a fight-dictating jab like Louis and Lewis did. Couldn't really help it, he was really too short for that. Marciano for the same reason lacked a good jab, but made up for it with unorthodox punches as you said, all types of punches, hooks, uppercuts, half hook half uppercuts, straight right hands..
Some delusional fools think that 185 lb Jack Dempsey could beat him! Any sensible person knows that Willard would just keep Dempsey on the end of that jab all night and Dempsey would just sit there hoping that Willard would stop jabing him. If you are bigger than sombody and know how to jab you have them beaten.
It's very difficult to go against Louis. He masterfully jabbed his way to decision wins against Farr, in Godoy I, shut out Natie Brown over ten rounds handily in their first meeting, and scored a quintet of fine points verdicts over Brion, Agramonte and Bivins, sanwiched in between the losses to Charles and Marciano. Tyson had a pretty fair jab, but I can't buy him using it to outscore an HOF caliber opponent like Bivins, certainly not at the advanced age Louis was. Like janitor, I also agree with Dempsey at number two.
To say those things about Jess indicates to me that you must have viewed the complete movie footage of his performances against Moran and Johnson in Havana. It also suggests to me that you did a frame by frame analysis of how he was able to outmaneuver Moran and beat him repeatedly to the punch. (A since deceased friend, who was a former boxer and boxing buff, played those movies on a projector at a gathering when I was a kid, stopping and starting them, pointing out fine details, and replaying the footage in slow motion. It all took a long time to go through, but we were riveted. I don't remember exactly when it was, but it couldn't have been too terribly long after the Willard/Johnson footage had been rediscovered. He worked for a large newspaper, which gave him ready access to all kinds of interesting goodies.)
I would say Tyson because he had blazing speed when he threw combinations, he had a good jab, great left hook, and a damn hard uppercut. I do believe Joe Louis is close second though.
Louis, Tyson, and Dempsey are obviously mentioned, but Lennox Lewis seems to be very overlooked. He was such a huge guy, but he was so athletic and so coordinated. He had a great left jab when he threw it with conviction, a straight right hand, a powerful overhand right, a good left hook, and a devestating uppercut from both sides. Not to mention that, for a big guy, he had very good handspeed. A great offensive arsenal...
