The Fastest Heavyweight Champ Ever?

[Nile4000]

Who In terms of handspeed is the Fastest Champion of all time?

Or who can think of normal heavyweight who where fast, but did not get the crown? Jimmy young for example.

Mitch"Blood" Green had great handspeed, early in his career, back to his amateur days.

[ManchesterMexican]

Samuel Peter

[I Feel Fine]

Even if Patterson did have faster hands, which I don't really agree with (though it should be said that he had more behind his punches than Ali did) it should also be said that Ali was a natural Heavyweight while Patterson by today's standards would be a Cruiserweight, and started his career at Middleweight and Light Heavyweight. Ali was much bigger than Floyd in their fights. And so I would say that Ali had the fastest hands of any natural Heavyweight, whether or not one wanted to say that Patterson had faster hands. And his legs and reflexes were much faster than Patterson's.

[Minotauro]

In terms of hand speed it has to be Patterson watch his early stuff like his Moore fight the guys speed is incredible.

[Big Bad John]

If Patterson fought today, he'd still be a heavyweight. He fought at 165 as an amateur and 175 in his early pro days. He had a hell of a left hook, arguably the best heavyweight boxing had ever seen before Frazier and Tyson. If he fought today, he'd probably roid up to 210 or 220 and beat everyone in the division short of Klitschko.

[Robinson]

I seriously doubt he would bulk up that much, I think he would be the
type of guy that would fight at the weight he was maybe 200lbs max.

The training he did helped to make him who he was in the ring.

[Big Bad John]

I don't know. Over the years, I've come to accept that modern weight training methods (explosive training, etc...) have their uses. I think Patterson would have been able to put on a solid 20 pounds without losing much speed. Look at how easily Roy Jones bulked up to 199 to fight Ruiz.

[Robinson]

True. Even at around 200lbs Patterson would still be some what
heavy for what he was best at.

My only criticism of Floyd is that he would some times rely on
spurts, which I think cost him fights before the eyes of the
judged (Ellis, Quarry).

How he would do against giants like Cooney, Grant, Wlad, etc
would make for an interesting match....

[Big Bad John]

Vitali got beat by Byrd, and Grant was beaten by 218-pound Dominick Guinn.

[Robinson]

Like I said it would be interesting to see the contrast in size and style.

How big to Ali and Liston look to Patterson imagine his slight size in
comparison to these men.

I recall when he was training Ruddock and how slight he looked then,
but boy could he explode like a stick of dynamite.

[I Feel Fine]

If Patterson fought today, he'd still be a heavyweight. He fought at 165 as an amateur and 175 in his early pro days. He had a hell of a left hook, arguably the best heavyweight boxing had ever seen before Frazier and Tyson. If he fought today, he'd probably roid up to 210 or 220 and beat everyone in the division short of Klitschko.

I agree, if he fought today he would be a Heavyweight. My point was simply that during his career he almost never weighed over 200 pounds; which by today's standards is Cruiserweight.

As for the rest of your post; he did have some of his early pro fights at around 165 as well. I agree that he would beat any of the Heavyweights today besides Klitschko, but while he had a great left hook I think the best pre-Frazier Heavyweight left hook clearly belongs to Dempsey.

[Robinson]

I think Patterson had a better left hook and combinations than the
Great Dempsey. Dempsey had power and a primal rawness to his
but I personally feel Patterson and a Cleveland Williams had a better
left hook.

[I Feel Fine]

No one said anything about combinations. But Dempsey clearly had the better hook.

[Big Bad John]

Patterson had more range on the left hook, and he landed it more precisely. Dempsey and Williams had more power, but neither of them had a left hook that could put people down for the count from so far away. Dempsey was definitely a better combination puncher than Patterson.

[I Feel Fine]

I would say Dempsey had the better hook. He didn't have the same range, but for sheer power i would take it over Patterson's.

[Robinson]

I think Patterson had better combinations than Dempsey.

[Goliath]

1. Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Tyson

[Robinson]

where do you rate Patterson, Goliath?

[Big Bad John]

1. Ali
2. Joe Louis
3. Tyson

Joe Louis was faster than Mike Tyson?!?!? I mean, he had some decent handspeed, but the only top heavyweights who compare with Tyson are Ali, Patterson and Roy Jones.

[Grimm]

What makes you all think floyd would go up in weight.
I'm not sure if you noticed but fighters now days do not purposely try to bulk up, instead they take a drastic drop in weight by draining themselves. I mean the only fighter I can think of who "bulks up" is Chris Byrd.

[Robinson]

If Patterson fought at HW today he would be the same weight
as he was. Thougfh he would most likely be a LHW, CW or even
SMW these days.

[HomicideHenry]

I dont know whether to rank Young and Byrd as being "the fastest" but rather more as the most elusive heavyweights I have seen...Patterson's hand speed I believe was greater than Ali's, he just didn't have the speed to quite get away like Ali was able to do...Ezzard Charles was pretty fast for a Heavyweight, as was the reports of Jim Corbett whom some old timers swore up and down was faster (if its even possible) than Muhammad Ali.

[p4p1]

I dont know whether to rank Young and Byrd as being "the fastest" but rather more as the most elusive heavyweights I have seen...Patterson's hand speed I believe was greater than Ali's, he just didn't have the speed to quite get away like Ali was able to do...Ezzard Charles was pretty fast for a Heavyweight, as was the reports of Jim Corbett whom some old timers swore up and down was faster (if its even possible) than Muhammad Ali.

everyone thinks their generation is better than others

[TheOneIsHere2008]

I repeat:

The Muhammad Ali of 60’s was the fastest heavyweight ever. In the May 5, 1969 Sports Illustrated, Ali’s jab was measured with an omegascope. Ali’s jab, it was found, could smash a balsa board 16.5 inches away in 19/100 of a second. It actually covered the distance in 4/100 of a second, which is the blink of an eye. Jimmy Jacobs, who owned the world’s largest collection of fight films, said that on film tests with a synchronizer Ali’s jab was faster than that of Sugar Ray Robinson. Jacobs contended that Ali was not only the fastest heavyweight, but also the fastest fighter he ever saw on film.

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/ali.html

And here's Muhammad Ali hitting Brian London (I know he's a journeyman, I'm not going to call a boxer a bum or tomato can...You call him one and see what happens)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU2YPXgh ... deo/117445

Fourteen punches in three seconds!!!

[SteveO]

1. Ali
2. Patterson
3. Tyson
4. Louis
5. Holmes