What happened to that really elegant, fluid outboxer style?

[Weltschmerz]

What about Usyk? He's elegant to watch, even if he's not fluid in a classical sense.

[boliodogs]

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

If you think clinching is bad these days you should watch some fights from the early 1900s. Clinch city. One big wrestling match. The ref didn't break them so they just wrestled away and tried to get an arm free to punch with.

[IronDanHamza]

If you think clinching is bad these days you should watch some fights from the early 1900s. Clinch city. One big wrestling match. The ref didn't break them so they just wrestled away and tried to get an arm free to punch with.

Muhammad Ali was really bad when it came to holding.

Robinson too at times.

A lot of people here are simply clueless. Think that holding is something new to the sport

[Larry the boss]

Terrance Crawford?

[Larry the boss]

Like Mikey Garcia vs Orlando Salido?

Great example..

[Bravado]

You know how hard it is to be right in front of someone and be trained mentally and sharp physically to make them miss by inches???? Its such a hard thing to do. You need not only the physical stamina, but the mental stamina to be disciplined enough to be able to do it.

[MDPopescu]

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.

... Crawford, Loma, Rigondeaux...