BoxRec

I was watching a Michael Spinks fight yesterday and it hit me that there's never been another boxer like him. The style he used was unique in my humble opinion.

So...........

Post the name of a fighter on the thread (one at a time if poss) and someone else can call bullsh1t and name a fighter with the same style.

Think Naz was pretty close to unique.

I dare say fighters had attempted a similarly arrogant hands down style, but not that extreme.

I dare say others may have attempted to mimic it since, but with nowhere near the effect.

davie wrote:Think Naz was pretty close to unique.

I dare say fighters had attempted a similarly arrogant hands down style, but not that extreme.

I dare say others may have attempted to mimic it since, but with nowhere near the effect.

Didnt Herol Graham invent all the hand sdown stuff? Thats where Naz learned that style from.

davie wrote:Think Naz was pretty close to unique.

I dare say fighters had attempted a similarly arrogant hands down style, but not that extreme.

I dare say others may have attempted to mimic it since, but with nowhere near the effect.

Agreed.

Kirkland laing was pretty unique

mimmy123 wrote:

davie wrote:Think Naz was pretty close to unique.

I dare say fighters had attempted a similarly arrogant hands down style, but not that extreme.

I dare say others may have attempted to mimic it since, but with nowhere near the effect.

Didnt Herol Graham invent all the hands down stuff? That's where Naz learned that style from.

Yes, but as I said, I don't think it was the same style to watch as Hamed.
I don't think he took it to the extremes Naz did, wasn't as arrogant with it.
He used it as a defensive style, Hamed stood in range purposely mocking opponents. And the angles he threw punches from and was able to generate huge power from was astounding.

I've no doubt Graham may have invented the idea and Naseem may have mimicked it, but he created something very different to watch in my opinion.

The fights I've watched of Grahams, he moved well when fighting with the hands down, circling. Naz would casually walk backwards or even just stand in your face and swivle at the hips to evade punches.

That was another fairly unique about Naz for me, his flexibility was outrageous. I haven't seen all of Herols fight but I don't think I've witnessed him go all rubberman, like Naz could to evade shots.

Vasyl Lomachenko. Stupendously stylish.
Archie Moore, the cross arms and crouch.
Rocky Marciano, a swarmer who was defensively adept while looking wide open.

In articles that i've read about Homicide Hank, i have seen him described as "a classically stylish boxer" yet also being cited as being "a heavy handed puncher".

Being described as both of those extreme opposites, i'd guess his style was something very special.

A fighter who could outbox you.
A boxer who could outfight you.

Tommy 'Hurricane' Jackson - he must have been truly one of the most unique characters in and out of the ring. He would throw his left and right punch at the same time. I cant remember many others doing that !!!
Red Smith once commented : 'Hurricane Jackson fights like a swarm of gnats, a cloud of mosquitos, a visitation of wasps. He doesn't knock people out. He drives them mad.''

Muhammad Ali - No-one has ever fought like him in his 60s pomp.

He did everything wrong; pulled back from punches; kept his hands low & never punched to the body, but he got away with it, because he was unique.

Ray 'Windmill' White

Nobody ever had the bag of tricks that Windmill possessed.

Mike 'the Bounty' Hunter. The ultimate idiosyncratic.

Didnt Herol Graham invent all the hand sdown stuff? Thats where Naz learned that style from.

Would agree with Davie....Naz had the Graham style but then mixed-in his own much more aggressive approach; power shots from all sorts of unorthodox angles and on the counter as well as coming forwards. It moved-on the Ingle gym house-style; elusivity mixed with KO shots.

Seeing Naz come through - especially early-on at British and Euro level - was really exciting.

A great deal of the Brit commentators thought he was going to get whacked-out with that low guard and often not bothering to move out of range. Lots of tut-tutting at the time about 'crazy risks' but Naz was winning for fun at that level and was still winning world-title levels like that.

IThe fight with Kevin Kelley at the MSG is still one of my favourites...Naz fighting with incredible arrogance, getting dropped but backing his power, speed and unconventionality.

keithmoonhangover wrote:I was watching a Michael Spinks fight yesterday and it hit me that there's never been another boxer like him. The style he used was unique in my humble opinion.

So...........

Post the name of a fighter on the thread (one at a time if poss) and someone else can call bullsh1t and name a fighter with the same style.

Spinks was very orthodox in his basic approach... He kept his head back much better than most boxers, which is a bit unusual but you're supposed to do that.. He kept his guard up better than most top boxers. Most tend to drop their hands often.. Ricardo "Finito" Lopez also kept his hands up very well, as you're supposed to do.. Spinks threw short, chopping punches more than most, because his hands were always in position to lead, counter, or defend like they're supposed to be.. He was a lot busier than the average fighter.

A fighter he reminded me of was Harold Johnson. Johnson's fight with unbeaten challenger Doug Jones in on YouTube, and that was a good performance from him.. Johnson kept very busy like Spinks, used his jab a lot, changed up his feet occasionally and flurried like Spinks with short punches.. The difference are Johnson moved to his left almost exclusively, didn't keep his head back as well, didn't pop his gloves together or feint with his hands as much,

Every boxer's footwork is a little different because everybody''s gate is a little different. Spinks had a very loose and gangling gate. It made some of his movements seem almost like a puppet on strings. He'd do a lot of movements and feints with his hands and head, popping his gloves together and moving his head. He'd keep his jab going almost casually out of this, but they scored very well, then he would open up with a brutal flurry. For me, other than Tunney, he was the best Light Heavyweight of all time, and the best LHW champion of all time. I loved the 1st Holmes fight. He did a great job beating a great Heavyweight.

Surprised no one has posted.... Emanuel Augustus. Talk about unique

Hamed was a herolb graham imitator but yes with his pulverising power and youth he took the limbo dancer thing to a new level.and the fact he fought at a lower level all his career than the level of kalambay,mccallum and jackson.he could get away with that. At true world class A level he was exposed the first time he stepped up with bareera.but he ruled a weak division he was the greatest featherweight ofcthe 1990s and is an ATG himself Also he had elements of aaron pryors style too ,and on a aastethetic level he ripped hector camachos,act a little, down to the leopard trunks and curl plus muhammad ali.but still the result was something original!

But all in all...naz was a unique wrecking ball and flamboyant presence on the staid uk scene emerging from the 1980s ...him ,eubank,benn ushered in a new era

Tony Galento

BitPlayer wrote:Tony Galento

I remember an interview with Rocky Marciano where he said that Galento was the best street fighter in the US! He had a ton of respect for two ton.

Dancin' Dan wrote:Surprised no one has posted.... Emanuel Augustus. Talk about unique

You beat me to it!

Floyd Jr gives Kudo's to Augustus as well.

Might have to include Patterson in this. A leaping peekaboo oddity.


Also, as boring as he could be, Winky Wright had a one of a kind style as did Kenny Norton.....you could photoshop their faces off, and their unique routines would still be unmistakable.

......one more.....Sweet P

Joichiro Tatsuyoshi?
Koichi Wajima?

The Boxer with the most unique style I've see was Dmitry Pirog... He switched his feet up in ways nobody teaches you, and his freaky feints were like nobody teaches... Then he threw from weird angles off the wrong foot and and sure confused the Hell out of Daniel Jacobs.

Vasyl Lomachenko moves his feet so much, and throws such sustained combinations of good punches it's pretty freaky.

Henry Armstrong got away with butting and pushing with his head like nobody else ever did... He was DQ'd a couple times and he had 4 and 5 points taken sometimes... But he never stopped with the pushing and shoving and the head-butts.

Fighting Harada was a freaky switch hitter who could keep throwing while he changed stances... He was the only fighter to beat Jofre.

Nicolino Locche was a comedian/boxer... His goal was to make his opponent look foolish and make the audience laugh... He fought 5th rate opponents almost exclusively, so he was able to make his agenda happen quite frequently.

Max Baer was the clown-prince of Boxing... He would insult his opponents and swing as big as he could with looping roundhouse shots... It's interesting that only Joe Louis and Lou Nova ever made him pay the ultimate price for this behavior..

Kalan wrote:The Boxer with the most unique style I've see was Dmitry Pirog... He switched his feet up in ways nobody teaches you, and his freaky feints were like nobody teaches... Then he threw from weird angles off the wrong foot and and sure confused the Hell out of Daniel Jacobs.

Vasyl Lomachenko moves his feet so much, and throws such sustained combinations of good punches it's pretty freaky.

Henry Armstrong got away with butting and pushing with his head like nobody else ever did... He was DQ'd a couple times and he had 4 and 5 points taken sometimes... But he never stopped with the pushing and shoving and the head-butts.

Fighting Harada was a freaky switch hitter who could keep throwing while he changed stances... He was the only fighter to beat Jofre.

Nicolino Locche was a comedian/boxer... His goal was to make his opponent look foolish and make the audience laugh... He fought 5th rate opponents almost exclusively, so he was able to make his agenda happen quite frequently.

Max Baer was the clown-prince of Boxing... He would insult his opponents and swing as big as he could with looping roundhouse shots... It's interesting that only Joe Louis and Lou Nova ever made him pay the ultimate price for this behavior..

Good list. What about Ali? Would you say he had a unique style?