The Best "Short-Armed" Jabbers in Boxing History

[Caractacus]

Jack Johnson was 6 ft 1.75" tall.
his reach has been listed at either
72.75 " or 74.5". ( which would about equal his height in inches)
Anyway, I dont re-call him ever having a great jab or a single knock-out punch
( from any of the surviving film footage anyway)

[Expug]

Someone mentioned Qwawi. I’d say him and Lamotta were the best short armed jabbers I’ve seen. Dwight was terrific at it.

[Ambling Alp II]

They did have good jabs. I think sometimes people don't rate fighters on what they actually do, but what they are expected to do. Short guys are almost never mentioned as having a good jab.
Likewise, virtually every tall fighter is automatically credit with having a good jab, whether they did or not.

[Caractacus]

Someone mentioned Qwawi. I’d say him and Lamotta were the best short armed jabbers I’ve seen. Dwight was terrific at it.

Dwight Muhammad Quai dont count.
He was about 5 ft 6" but he had the reach of someone around 5 ft 11".
(listed variously as a 71 to 74 inch reach))

[Caractacus]

I think it would have helped in this video, if his sparring partners didnt have a shorter reach then he does.

[Expug]

Someone mentioned Qwawi. I’d say him and Lamotta were the best short armed jabbers I’ve seen. Dwight was terrific at it.

Dwight Muhammad Quai dont count.
He was about 5 ft 6" but he had the reach of someone around 5 ft 11".
(listed variously as a 71 to 74 inch reach))

those are short reach stats. Especially to fight at the weights he did. He was a very short fighter at 5-6 which makes landing the jab that much more difficult.

[gilgamesh]

Someone mentioned Qwawi. I’d say him and Lamotta were the best short armed jabbers I’ve seen. Dwight was terrific at it.

Qawi and Lamotta are definitely the top shouts here, but since we're on page 2, and nobody has mentioned him I think that Montell Griffin fits this conversation. He was a short fighter at Light Heavyweight, but he had a taller man's style, and had a pretty effective jab.

I don't know if you'd call Miguel Cotto short armed, but he always had a very consistent jab. Same with Canelo.

[bennie]

Vinnie Curto.

[Syntax Error]

On a related note, does anyone know what the best "One punch" knock-outs, were by a short-armed boxer ?

Mike Tyson V Frans Botha.

[margaret thatcher]

Michael "Dynamite" Dokes
I don't think he was actually 6 ft 3" as claimed and maybe his reach (78")may have been shorter as claimed too.
but if so he sure made up for it with his incredible hand-speed.
Michael Dokes continuious fast left hand used it as his jab.

Nice video to put out there.

I don't think Dokes gets enough credit for his handspeed.

Whenever the subject comes up, Dokes rarely gets mentioned, but you'd struggle to find anyone with better handspeed, particularly at HW.

Even Holyfield said Dokes was the fastest guy he had faced and that was past his prime drug addled Dokes.

absolutetly, id say ali was the only hw i rate above dokes hand speed wise

[Caractacus]

oh, Dokes got plenty of props as far as hand speed on this forum (more then 10 years ago anyway)
Corrie "The Sniper" Sanders also had really fast hands for a HW.

[Caractacus]

Which short-armed fighter had the best 'left-Hook" ?
could they get enough leverage into it with short arms ?

[Caractacus]

when Mike Tyson moved in with Cus D'Amato at the Catskills in March 1980.
he was 13 ,and stood five foot six inches tall and weighed 196 lbs.
He studied boxing films there in the attic 10 + hours a day.
and one point ,he requested to view all boxing films featuring short-armed Champions and contenders.
so that he could study them intensley.

[Caractacus]

Here is a quote from the book IRON AMBITION by Mike Tyson (2017)
page 367
"Cus always liked me to jab.
I don't jab much, but I have an awesome jab.
Sometimes I'd knock the teeth to the back of the guy's head using my jab"

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

Which short-armed fighter had the best 'left-Hook" ?
could they get enough leverage into it with short arms ?

I remember in the book The CORNER MEN (1991)
in the chapter with Angelo Dundee,
he mentions a trainer at Stillman's Gym in NYC,
named Teddy Bentham ( who trained lightweight champion Jimmy Carter and featherwieght champ Davey Moore).
Angelo Dundee said
"That's the guy with a short arm.
Had a little short arm on him and
every time he tried to describe a left hook,
He'd (Teddy Bentham) would say
"Here's a short left hook"
he had a short left arm with a short left hook.

[margaret thatcher]

mike maybe the most explosive hw in history, everything so drilled into him too. he was like a robot.

[Caractacus]

Roberto Duran height 5 ft 7.6"
reach- 67 inches

[dempseyfire]

One thing was for sure Tommy Morrison had a WIDE back.
I remember reading somewhere where some one wanted to measure a fighters reach
from their arm-pit to the end of the closed fist which would be a more accurate indicator of actual reach.

no it wouldn't, the breadth of your shoulders/ back affects how far you can hit someone from

the dudes below have equal arm length but bottom dude with broader shoulders can hit you from further away

if your shoulders are broader, then basiically your arm starts further out, and hence you can reach farther


.....0---__---0

0---_____---0

Exactly. When HBO changed to this measurement for "more accuracy" I was livid at the ignorance.

In boxing you don't stand completely squared up; you throw punches with your body turned sideways. Thus, broader shoulders/back increases the reach advantage (the distance your opponent has to get to your chin vs the distance you have to reach their chin) I think I remember based on HBO's measurement, Chris Byrd had a greater reach than Wlad Klitschko . . it was insanely dumb.

[Caractacus]

Normally Duran's reach had been listed at 66-67 inches.
here it is listed as being " 58 and one-half inch".
Barkely reach usually listed at 74" here is 64 " !

[elmersalsa]

Aaron Pryor

[funso banjo baby]

Bugner looked like he had short arms.

[Caractacus]

must have been the genomes, he probably was descended from a long-line of "Bull-Fighters from the "Old Country".

[Caractacus]

That music was all wrong, sounded more like Benny Leonard's era.
not the late 1960's. This should have been the music.

[Caractacus]

This dude from Japan had a 'short-arm" reach but that did not prevent him from becoming
the 'light-Middleweight" champion of the World !
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/origina ... 23-229118/