What happened to that really elegant, fluid outboxer style?

[Tom Cruise]

Like Mikey Garcia vs Orlando Salido?

Garcia is more static than what im talking about. He doesnt really move around his opponent pumping the jab. He's more about a solid base with well timed counters and hard jabs. love me some Mikey though.

Salido??

Definitely not

[Tom Cruise]

Took a few posts until someone said the truth. Clinch is not penalized. Therefore it's being abused as a defensive weapon.

Plenty of these guys clinched. The post prime version of Robinson that we see on tape loved a clinch. Inbetween the clinches they were a lot more active and mobile though

[bojangles1987]

Crawford can kind of do that, though he's still more about quick strikes rather than the more fluid style you're talking about. Loma's pretty beautiful to watch, too, though he isn't much of a jabber.

I think that style has vanished because fighters simply don't know how to do it. They don't know how to both dance effectively or judge distance like the fighters you mention. The fighters who can dance effectively don't have the stamina to maintain the activity fighters like Ali or Leonard did. Fighters work hard just to be good at one or the other.

Like inside fighting, it's another casualty of the fading popularity and diminishing talent pool.

[bojangles1987]

I blame Roy Jones a little bit for the abandoning of a consistent jab from outboxers. He had the ability stay well out of range using more feints and pawing and didnt really need to pump the jab, but his great athleticism allowed him to close the gap with straight rights or lead left hooks without his opponents countering.

Now you see fighters like Thurman or Haye who are great athletes but seem content to use jerky feints rather than a really nice smooth jab and footwork and both are lacking imo because of it. Not that they arent good fighters. But they could be better

Yeah, Roy influenced an entire generation to favor jumping in with power shots over using the jab to set them up. It's why so many fights between outside boxers devolve into two guys jumping into clinches.

[DinoCop]

Ali did the same, idk if any outboxer didn't do that, this is one of the main doctorines of outboxing: you clinch when they manage to get in.
And not everyone allows you to clinch. Maidana slaughtered Broner everytime he wanted to tangle, he did the same against vs Floyd 1, Canelo did it against Lara.
Is that really a big issue, opponent letting himself to be clinched?
Whoever refused to be clinched by Floyd got a SD loss, Castillio, Oscar, many ppl believed Maidana to a certain extend...

[soul_survivor]

Who has the stamina of a prime Ali or Leonard? Guys guess after 5 rounds these days.

The Ali style is high output AND movement. No one can do that these days because they do not have the physical capabilities to do so. It really is that simple.

Btw, no one has mentioned Hearns, who basically used that style on Leonard in that first fight and completely befuddled him for about 7 rounds.

[REMOVE SHARK 55]

I was thinking about this after watching Prince Naseem.

Evolution doesn't escape any thing in this world and as someone mentioned the best boxer of the day is the guy to emulate.

I need to come back to this thread.

[Canelo and GGG]

People have no stamina to fight like Ali or SRL,i Also noticed that Jab is forgotten weapon thoes days, i rearly see good Sharp Jab like Ali or Holmes had.

[Tom Cruise]

People have no stamina to fight like Ali or SRL,i Also noticed that Jab is forgotten weapon thoes days, i rearly see good Sharp Jab like Ali or Holmes had.

You mostly see either a very weak set up pawing jab like Rigo, or a hard thumping jab. Rarely that one in between, like you say, a sharp consistent snappy jab.

[Tom Cruise]

I dont think it necessarily has to be that hard on your stamina if you are smooth and use effective movement. David Haye's nervous twitching and bouncing is probably harder on his engine than these types...

(SRR)

(Johnson)

Maybe i shouldnt have said dancing because that instantly brings to mind the amount of movement that Ali or Pep used. It doesnt need to be that pronounced.