BoxRec

I've been tryin to break down every and all Heavyweights to a few cateogries...

Here's what I've come up with:

THE ARTISTS:
The fighters who make boxing look like a skillful sport.

THE BRAWLERS:
The hard men, who hit hard and slug it out.

THE POWER-PUNCHERS:
The big men who punch hard.

THE SPEEDSTERS:
The speedy heavyweights, who realy on dodge tactics.

THE JAB-MASTERS:
The Heavyweights who rely on their destructive jabs.


HERE ARE MY RESULTS OF THE 3 OF EACH OF THE CATGORIES!!!

The Artists:
Muhammad Ali, Jersey Joe Walcott, Gene Tunney.

The Brawlers:
Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, Joe Frazier.

The Power-Punchers:
Joe Louis, George Foreman, Mike Tyson,

The Speedsters:
Ezzard Charles, Archie Moore, Floyd Patterson.

The Jab-Masters:
Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, Sonny Liston.

Please, feel free to add it your own categories and add or modify my own candidates for each category.

All opionions will be respected and appreciated...

Should Floyd Patterson realy be a Jab-master, shouldn't Liston be there and Patterson a speedster?

Crease wrote:Please, feel free to add it your own categories and add or modify my own candidates for each category.

All opionions will be respected and appreciated...

So where is Joe Louis?

The Artists:
Larry Holmes, Archie Moore, Joe Louis.

The Brawlers:
Evander Holyfield,Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier

The Power-Punchers:
Joe Louis, George Foreman, Mike Tyson.

The Speedsters:
Ezzard Charles, Muhammad Ali, Floyd Patterson.

The Jab-Masters:
Larry Holmes, Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali

Grimm, you've placed Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes twice...

Why not put them in one category and explain why...


As for Joe Louis,

I think that Louis is a unique fighter who would be very difficult to pigeon-hole in a category...

Crease wrote:Grimm, you've placed Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes twice...

Why not put them in one category and explain why...


As for Joe Louis,

I think that Louis is a unique fighter who would be very difficult to pigeon-hole in a category...

I didn't know we where supposed to only be able to pick fighters once but I do believe Holmes was one of the most technical fighters of all time as well as having the best jab of all time.

And yes Joe Louis had an all around offense which had some of everything but I think his punching power stood out the most.

Joe Louis should be in amongst the jab masters IMO.

Syntax Error wrote:Joe Louis should be in amongst the jab masters IMO.

Oh yeah I could've done that too.

Some of these guys don't neatly fall into one category. Tyson could called a brawler-his style was closer to Dempsey,Marciano and Frazier than it was to Louis and Foreman.

Don't know if Lewis should be a "jab master'. In some of his fights he didn't use his jab effectively at all. He would just paw with it.
He could called a power puncher.

Holyfield is naother guy that is hard. He wasn't just a brawler. He would box some too.
Jeffries was a guy that wasn't mentioned, he could be described as a brawler.

Lewis wouldn't even fall into the top 10 "power punchers" for the Heavyweight division,

So that's that idea out the window...

For what it's worth, here is my shot:

The Artists:
Muhammad Ali, Jim Corbett, Gene Tunney

The Brawlers:
Rocky Marciano, Jack Dempsey, Mike Tyson

The Power-Punchers:
Joe Louis, George Foreman, Sonny Liston

The Speedsters (these really overlaps with "artists"):
Muhammad Ali, Ezzard Charles, Floyd Patterson

The Defensive (rather than Jab-) Masters:
Larry Holmes, Lennox Lewis, Jack Johnson (Sonny Liston)


However, these shoebox-"typologies" never fully match and are always a bit over-simplifying. I'd rather break it down according to handspeed, footspeed, defense, jab, combination punching, counter punching, ring generalship, one-hand power punching, etc..

Would Evander Holyfield be an artist?

I always thought that Holyfield was a little bit of a brawler and little bit of a boxer. He mixed it up. This was one reason why he was so good. He wasn't the best brawler or the best boxer, but he was good enough at each to cause problems for his opponents.

It just goes to prove that whenever people speak of boxing there will be 1001 different opinions and one and all are both right and wrong, once again depending on one's point of view and bias.