Who was the greatest pure boxer of all time?

well ali had combination punching,jab,a chopping right hand that he knocked guys out with,great footwork and good upper body and head movement.quite a few attributes there i would say.also when ali lost his speed post '70 he beat all of arguablly the best batch of heavies ever admitedly not with all his boxing skills other assets came to the fore.so basically he was still a helluva fighter.

 

Of course he was, no doubt. But like I wrote, without his speed you would have seen what than would have happened. When I watch fights of Loughran, Charles, Whitaker, etc. I notice a difference, they had all the arsenal you need, Ali didn´t have...

 

Corbett. By the standards of his day, his boxing was textbook. Slick, seldom made mistakes in the ring, a solid amateur, and retained his success into his old age. Aside from his speed, he had no outstanding physical capabilities that he hadn't acquired from hard and studious training.

 

Yeah, and that was my simple point. Whitaker was the better pure boxer than Ali for example, that´s it...

 

As the creator of this thread, the definition is your prerogative to establish. From my perspective, my proper function is to help act as a "sounding board" for helping you determine that for yourself. That doesn't necessarily mean that this interesting thread should be closed now, but that your criteria and terms for what constitutes a "pure" boxer are being clarified and satisfied.

 

At the expense of demonstrating boorish behaviour, this addage is not true in the literal sense (as old dogs can indeed be taught new tricks), or necessarily in a boxing sense.

However, Foreman not only evolved his approach to accommodate his increased weight and advancing years, he established himself as a solid 12 round performer during his second career.

Larry Holmes tried to box Tyson as he might have done ten years earlier. But although Larry has always disparaged Foreman for George's failure to meet him in the ring, Holmes freely admitted that he adopted Foreman's reduced use of the legs, more relaxed attitude, and various other adaptations he was using successfully, then handily outboxed Mercer in a very different way than he would have in his own youth.

(For his part, Foreman was ironically the architect of his own defeat to Tommy Morrison. After Morrison ran out of steam while leading handily against Mercer, he called George for advice on avoiding a repeat, and Foreman advised him to take a more relaxed approach to his boxing, along with other helpful tidbits of advice. When they faced each other, Tommy proved that George had taught him very well. But Foreman certainly had enough additional wise counsel left to himself to maintain a pretty successful boxing career after. Maybe it's more accurate to say that a smart old dog can teach new tricks.)

 

i'm a little bit confused luigi.when ali lost his speed post '70 we saw what happened.he beat foreman,frazier,norton,shavers etc.etc.as another poster said it was mainly done by slugging it out and sheer guts,but there was still some considerable skills in there.

 

Against Norton he lost normally 2 fights clearly out of 3, against Frazier also 1 and one was even at the time of the stoppage. Shavers and Foreman were so robotic, a fighter with a great chin and some skills could outbox them, like many others showed it. Ali had great skills, but I know others who were better pure boxer, but that´s just my opinion...

 

i agree he wasn't the best all round pure boxer,but he's up there,and he couldn't have won all of those fights in the seventies just on pure guts.

 

Excellent! Now we know exactly what criteria you apply to your idea of a pure boxer. You should definitely view the 15 rounds of Pastrano/Johnson and Griffith/Archer II on youtube, if you haven't already (and whenever you have the time, of course). Tunney/Gibbons, and Loughran/Braddock are also fine examples to peruse.

 

Completely agreed. You know, perhaps I sounded a bit harsh, but I didn´t mean it so. Ali´s great skills are unquestionable, but like I wrote, I think fighters like Conn, Rosenbloom, Loughran, etc. were just better pure boxers... :good