Top Five Left Hands You've Ever Seen?

In terms of their abilities to throw combos with their left; their jabs, hooks, uppercuts; their feinting ability; their power and speed and whatever else you feel matters for them make to make this list? Some of the guys I'd throw out from the start for varying reasons, are:

Sugar Ray Robinson
Ezzard Charles
Miguel Canto
Bob Foster
Fighting Harada
Ruben Olivares

 

John Conteh

 

Roy Jones Jr

 

Roy was the first who came to mind.

 

Crazy how Roy is a candidate despite barely ever utilizing the one punch that signifies the prototypical strong left hand.

 

I'd say Kid Gavilan may have had the most skillful left hand in history - he could double and triple up on his hooks, use the jab to block his opponent's right hand, and even jab off the hook (as opposed to the other way around), something I don't think I've ever seen another fighter do, at least not with such regularity.



In terms of pure power though, here's a few beauties:

 

Also, DeLaHoya.

 

Jones Jr showed the jab more than usual against ruiz

 

Was going to mention him. Not sure he cracks the top 5, but he was basically a one handed fighter and he accomplished a lot

 

Frazier is an obvious one.

 

Roy had a solid jab. He outjabbed Vergil Hill for Christ Sake.

 

I don’t recall that happening at all. Then again the KO is about all I recall with any clarity. That’s a good short one to rewatch.

Edit: After rewatching it nothing about my view has changed at all. Roy definitely didn’t outjab him because he barely threw any. A couple of range finders to the chest area or a soft body jab that was just the set up for one of his bait and pull counters. That was about the gist of it, meanwhile Hill’s entire punch output consisted of steady jabs to Roy’s midsection.

There was a brief stretch in the third round where he stung Hill square in the face with several solid left jabs. He sat down on those ones. I think he was making a point.

 

Yeah, Roy doesn't sit well with me on this thread. I can only remember two fights where he used his jab, one was against Vinny Paz and the other against Ruiz. His jab wasn't ATG level, by any means, even in those. His left hook was a beauty, but I feel like having just one punch isn't enough to fit this thread.

 

Jones had as fine a left uppercut as anyone in history.

 

Alright, I'll rephrase what I said. I don't think you can make this list without a great jab.

 

Archie Moore had a very educated left hand.

 

Israel Vazquez had a very versatile and agile left hand.

 

Say what you will about Marvin Johnson, but he threw his southpaw left fast and from a variety of angles:

 

You can absolutely not 'say what you will' about Marvin Johnson. I will tolerate zero derogatory comments or statements towards Marv.

But yeah, he had a brilliant left hand. Ridiculously explosive, hard power, dynamic in terms of his use. One of the few southpaws who looked comfortable throwing a left hook to the body; brutal uppercut, which he let rip one after another; massive power on its straights.

I feel like in terms of talking about angles, speed and power on a southpaw left, you'd have to talk about Pacquiao.

 

Saldivar was one of the earliest southpaws to combine speed, power, and angles. Still one of the best, if not THE second best behind Pac.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of Saldivar on there. Been a while since I watched him, but I tend to think that his right was better than his left. I love the way he pried open guards with it.

 

Jirov had a wicked left hook to the body

 

That's interesting. Definitely gonna watch more of Jirov, as I've only heard seen the Toney fight and his style was awesome to watch.

 

That was a terrific fight and probably second best Cruiser battle ever. Certain matchups you just know based upon styles have to be good and that lived up to the promise.

Jirov-Messi is a decent one to watch. He didn't belong at heavyweight at all but put his guts on full display. Not a lot happened in the middle rounds, but early and late were very entertaining.

 

The mcgroom.ko was a beauty

 

His.left.hook.body.shot ko.of.brown was also a beauty

 

Trinidad deserves mention.

Tito had a very hard, solid jab when he actually used it, could double the hook, threw a vicious hook to the body, and had some devastating left uppercuts.

I vividly remember him destroying Mamadou Thiam's face with left uppercuts.

 

Yeah. He was able to nearly tear Thiam's face off. He must have had an especially heavy handwrap that day.

 

Cleveland Williams could quintuple up on his left hooks:



Like Gavilan, Barney Ross had a great left hand that was not necessarily powerful, but immensely skillful:



Tony Zale, anyone?



His conqueror was no slouch, either:

 

Joe Louis >>> all four of those.