BoxRec

The idea for this topic came to me from watching our favorite whipping boy of late, Audley Harrison. Here's a guy who's almost 6-6, has an 86 inch reach, AND does not know how to put it to effective use. Anytime you watch a fighter who's tall for his weight class, (5-11 for a MW, 5-10 for a WW, 5-9 for a LW as a rough rule of thumb) you expect to see the tall guy keep his shorter opponent out of range with a long stiff jab, and when the little guy tries to force his way inside, you expect the bigger man to make him pay for it.

So for starters, here's a few guys who really made good use of there height.
Tommy Hearns (one of the best ever at it)
Carlos Monzon
Alexis Arguello

And a few who didn't
Poor Audley
Michael Grant
Diego Corrales

What about Bowe? He seemed to prefer fighting on the inside.

When Hearns was fighting at his lower weights wasn't he typically the taller fighter?

Lennox lewis used his reach pretty good. Just look at how he kept Tua at bay and didn't let him come close to him.

I have to agree with the Lewis statement, also Paul Williams (so far) does it well too, Valuev doesn't have a choice.

Lennox did it well at times, such as vs Tua and Tyson, but he didn't always. He also spread his legs to far apart, thereby not forcing opponents to hit up to him, and for some reason he sometimes neglected his excellent jab. He was an excellent heavyweight, but never quite as good as he should have been.

This is a topic I am very interested in, because I am on the edge of starting amateur boxing, and I am tall for my weight. 6'1 1/2 and 158lb at the moment, and I have 77 inch reach. Unfortunately my stamina is crap at the moment, so while I have a good jab, I tend to neglect it once I start to tire, which at the moment is after 2-3 rounds.

Good call on Corrales, he goes to war way too much. Audley would be one of the worst too, hes a big guy but never thumps his jab, instead just paws it.

Strange as it sounds, Sugar Ray Robinson didn't always make use of his height and reach advantage. Sometimes he elected to go toe to toe with far less skilled and shorter opponents like LaMotta and Basilio.

[quote="jezzamundo"]Lennox did it well at times, such as vs Tua and Tyson, but he didn't always. He also spread his legs to far apart, thereby not forcing opponents to hit up to him, and for some reason he sometimes neglected his excellent jab. He was an excellent heavyweight, but never quite as good as he should have been.quote]

My thoughts exactly!

I think Bob Foster was one of the best at it. Remember the Andy Kendall fight.