Who is the best technical boxer of all time?

Technical boxers whom I've enjoyed watching for some breathtaking skill are

Willie Pep
Lionel Rose
Wilfredo Benitez
Alberto Davila

 

Benny Leonard, was possibly the best technical boxer ever. At only 5ft6" Leonard had it all. A great moving boxer,with a great left jab, a great straight right-hand. Could glide effortessly in and out of range,watching for his opponent to make a mistake.
He also was the most gifted "thinker" ever,according to all that fought him or saw him...
He had to be all the above, because he was LW champion for seven years, beating the best assortment of great lightweight contenders ever...Leonard and his WW successor
Ray Robinson, both had it all...

 

Ezzard Charles is the best choice. Pep, Tunney, Burley, etc are not the ideal candidates. Creative, surreal, cerebral geniuses who strayed from the book; part of the reason for their genius to begin with. Effective and technical are not synonymous.

 

Harold Johnson to me, exemplified technical perfection..Teddy Brenner is on record for echoing that same sentiment.
Gene Tunney, of course is another.

 

Pernell Whitaker is a clear number one for me. He could jab and box off the back foot brilliantly (Nelson fight), he could throw a lot of punches and punish his opponent in aggressive displays (McGirt II), he could step inside a phonebox and slug it out with the best of them (McGirt I), he could turn in dazzling defensive performances that very few fighters have been able to replicate (Ramirez II). For his versatility, elite skills, and all-round mastery of the art, it has to be Sweet Pea for me.

 

Pernell Whitaker, or Ray Leonard.Slight edge to Ray.

 

That's a pretty good synopsis.:good

 

Willy Pep.

 

Davila's a really good choice.

Jorge Lujuan was a pretty capable technician, too. His technique may not have been quite as aesthetically pleasing, but it was pretty sound, all things considered.

Others to mention from the 70's and 80's include...

Eusebio Pedroza
Saoul Mamby
Salvador Sanchez
Wilfredo Lopez
Miguel Happy Lora
Marvin Hagler

 

Mike McCallum deserves mentioning.

 

More naturally gifted than cat-smart. Everything was effortless.

 

There are too many technically great boxers to narrow it down to just one, if your talking about just punching alone & not footwork, defensive movements etc then Joe Louis & Alexis Arguello come to mind, they could throw every punch in the book perfectly & with power too.

If your talking about being technically sound in every area then guys like Salvador Sanchez, Roberto Duran & Floyd Mayweather need to be mentioned.

If your talking guys that threw their punches technically correct but swayed away from the textbook at times & added their own natural genius then you add men like Willie Pep, Muhammad Ali & Pernell Whitaker.

And what about both Sugar Ray`s ?... what column do they fit into ?

There is no right answer here.

 

Shocked to see Billy Conn not mentioned, bejesus.