Who has greatest footwork ever?

I would have to go with the Prince. He has eyes in the back of his head. He was being run down by Robinson and he backed up all around the ring like he was going forward.

 

Id say Nas as well

 

Floyds footwork in the chico fight was unbelievable..He was so light on his feet

 

Best from off the top of my head...

Ali
Jones
Leonard
Hopkins
Mayweather
Pep
Whitaker
Camacho
Robinson

 

Bo Diddely!

 

Excellent. They deserve more than a mention. They're the clear cut top two IMO.

 

I'd have to say its a draw between PBF & RJJ! But theres other guys out there that had great footwork that should be listed. Sweet Pea, SRR, Willie Pep

 

I'm amazed so many people picked RJJ. I think his footwork sucked.

Hagler, Chavez, Pep, Sweet Pea, Mayweather, Ali, Duran and Hopkins are probably my top picks simply because they can defense and attack, move you out of position and take you off your rhythm with small or large movements. The pressure fighters like Hagler and Chavez could work you on the inside but place you in a position where your ability to throw back is limited and controlled, while maintaining their own leverage on their attacks. Hopkins is a master at breaking a person's rhythm, while Mayweather is a very good at attacking and defending while maintaining balance. Pep and Sweet Pea mastered defense by reading and reacting to their opponents footwork and simply having fast feet themselves could get out of harm's way.

 

How can you claim RJJ's footwork sucked when you mention Whitaker as having some of the best? He was great at fighting off the backfoot, but otherwise his footwork was flawed in that he often crossed his feet and was simply more focused on his upper-body movement. His footwork didn't coordinate as well with his upper-body movement as a guy like Pep, which is a lot of times why he was dropped with flash KD's where he wasn't hurt. He sometimes had balance issues, though more at WW than at LW.

Jones's footwork was excellent I thought, though not neccessarily textbook, he moved very well.

Napoles is the fighter with the best textbook footwork IMO, his was pretty much perfect in terms of balance, fluidity, and ability to close in and out of range.

 

Ali gets my vote, followed by Floyd Jr., Robinson, and maybe Jack Johnson.

 

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Jones was also frequently off-balance while throwing his lunging punches. He was simply too fast to be caught with anything in return (until Tarver put him to sleep). He moved well simply because he was a phenomenal athlete.

Basically, I don't like the whole lunging forward off-balance shot thing. Never did. It was effective, but I never liked it. I'll never rate him high on the best footwork list. I would never show tapes of him to anyone looking to learn boxing... unless I was saying what not to do.

I agree, Whitaker did concentrate too much on upper body movement. Very true.

 

Jersey Joe Walcott...

 

Well if you're basing it purely from a technical standpoint than you'd be right.

A guy like Camacho also had fantastic footwork in his prime.

 

Ali, Hopkins, Napoles, Pep, Jones, "Panama" Al Brown, both Leonards, Lopez, Robinson, Burley, Charles, Whitaker, etc., it's really impossible to say.

If I had to give a top choice, Pep's tough to argue against. Closest to him are Napoles and Hopkins IMO, but so many fighters have had amazing footwork that it's really impossible to say.