Who is or was the fastest boxer?

in my lifetime of watching boxing over the last 30 years its meldrick taylor.

 

Jones and Camacho would also be my two choices. Meldrick Taylor is in that discussion as well, especially when considering handspeed.

 

comacho and meldrick taylor were soooo quick it was unbelievable. sugar ray leonard was amazingly fast too and he looked like he was trying to kill the guy when he had him hurt cause he would put his whole body into the punches

 

1. Hector Camacho at 130
2. Meldrick Taylor at 140

 

Spot on. What impressed me about Taylor, unlike so many other quick fisted fighters, was that he didn't arm-punch or slap at all. He threw monstrous shots with 100% conviction and did it at a rapid speed, frequentely, and for 3 minutes of every round.

People talk about how JCC messed up Taylor; they forget that Taylor took something from JCC's body and it was never there again. He brutalised JCC like a hound with a rabbit.

Taylor will forever be the greatest "what if?" of modern boxing. What would he have been like if he'd had a trainer of the calibre of Eddie Futch in his corner, rather than Lou "I've trained 100 boxers that are nearly complete fighting machines but have a fatal flaw in their mental-makeup" Duva?

 

So basically you're calling him feather-fisted compared to guys like Jones and a young Camacho.

 

EDIT: Actually worked out what you were saying.

In comparison, yes. Taylor wasn't a massive one punch hitter.

 

SRL in his youth.

 

I thought Whitaker was faster than normal, but what impressed me more about Whitaker was his ability to read and his flexibility coupled with his speed.

His speed alone was good, but wouldn't have been able to avoid punches like he did without being able to read his opponents.

 

On a p4p scale i would say roy was the fastest though as been suggested camacho and taylor are close

Others i would throw into the reckoning would be SRL, Tyson(handspeed only), patterson and probably ali as well, mosley at 135 was no slouch either

 

True. In terms of fast-twitch muscle fibers, guys like Camacho, Jones, Taylor were faster, but in terms of reflexes and ring sense, only Jones was on his level(though not with upper-body movement).

 

Got to be Jones for me, just freakish at his best. Obviously Leonard is right up there too. People might discount Tyson because he was a heavy but he is one of the fastest fighters I've ever seen as well.