The AT top 10 Ring Generals

[The Old LefHook]

This is a tough one. Marciano is an immediate temptation, but let us consider some others. Some with average ring generalship built stellar records, like the narrow man.

Ray Leonard is right there with Rocco for smarts and adaptability. Adaptability is a principal part of ring generalship. Some, like Pep or Locche, use the same style to master the difficulty of any opponent. Others like Clay or Leonard tested an array of stratagems.

Who you got?

[millcitymauler]

Floyd has to be the quintessential ring general. He's somewhere in my top 15 fighters of all time, but going by ring generalship alone, I've never seen anyone who controls the action, pace, and distance better than Mayweather. Rarely were there any ebbs and flows in a Floyd fight. Better than anyone I've seen, he made his opponents fight HIS fight.

[DeeMoney]

This should be interesting because Ring Generalship can be ambiguous, even when utilizing the old NYSAC definition, and at times reward opposite actions.

If you put a heavy pressure fighter in there with a devout counter puncher they can both be 'fighting their fight' and doing those things which would make them the ring general. Yet you can't count both as the ring general.

I think the answers will tend to be those fighters who were extreme in either of those directions, as it is most clear to which way they are trying to direct the fight. Armstrong and Pep I think are good examples.

[The Old LefHook]

Monzon always forced his fight on opponents.

[The Old LefHook]

All things considered, Ray Leonard is probably the greatest ring general ever. Clay did not jab to the body much.

[Anthony342]

No love for Robinson?

[The Old LefHook]

Plenty of love for Robby. But ring generalship was not his long suit by modern standards. By the standards of his day he was considered a ring general par excellence, but those standards change, and we now see that it was a brawler's culture that considered him such a peerless wizard of ring generalship. That his generalship almost always led him to victory cannot be argued. It also led him to absorb more shots than he needed to, many more than Ray Leonard would have absorbed in the same fights for instance. Good for the fan but bad for the ring generalship ranking.

[The Old LefHook]

And of course let's not overlook a solid ring general like Joey Giardello, blessed with no special radar or talents but possessing plenty of fundamental boxing skill, supplemented by sensible ring generalship.

[Rusty Tromboni]

This is a tough one. Marciano is an immediate temptation, but let us consider some others. Some with average ring generalship built stellar records, like the narrow man.

Ray Leonard is right there with Rocco for smarts and adaptability. Adaptability is a principal part of ring generalship. Some, like Pep or Locche, use the same style to master the difficulty of any opponent. Others like Clay or Leonard tested an array of stratagems.

Who you got?

I'll entertain you.

How is Marciano a ring general?

[billeau2]

This is such a nebulous category... I know it exists, and respect it as a skill, just hard to put a finger on what it is and isn't.

I think of it as a greater total than the sum total of all the fighter's attributes. It is the way a fighter holds together, and applies mental strength and strategy to enforce his actions on the opponent. But any great fighter would have that quality.