I am writing an article again about boxing and I'd like to hear your opinions for it. I was thinking about decades and fighters who have somehow changed the ideology of the sport (at heavyweight) and invented something new. Here are some examples I thought of. Do you agree with them and can you find more J. Corbett - Brought side to side movement and modern punching techniques to heavyweight boxing. This meant that the physically best guy wouldn't necessarily win anymore. J. Johnson - Developed inside fighting and defensive technique a great deal. Uppercuts became potent weapon and he could throw his punches in a very small space compared to earlier champions J. Dempsey - Renewed attacking techniques. Brought head movement, combination punching and intensity to a new level J. Louis - Great defense again took over great offense. Perfected punching technique and concentrated on timing more than anybody before him. Also introduced aggressive jabbing, which Sonny Liston represented too. F. Patterson - Few fighters have been able to copy his ideas, but he introduced the peek-a-boo and his boxing, based mainly on quickness and combination punching, reminded the fighters of lower weight classes C. Clay - The biggest revolution so far. Changed the movement, defensive style, punching techniques and basically the whole approach to boxing. L. Lewis - Started the newest ideology where a fighter tries to fight only on his own strengths and prevent other areas of ring generalship. Reach has become more important than ever before. There are some obvious lines of development that you can see (for example Tunney had the same ideas as Corbett, Tyson idolized Dempsey) while other guys have tried to combine things from the past (Holmes learned the old, pure boxing technique but added the athletic part of Ali in).
I don't know that Louis concentrated more on defense than offense. I think timing and technique were the biggest improvements. Like you indicated Louis was moreso about perfecting a lot of the little things and not really fighting a certain style. Clay is very difficult because he was so talented and quick for a heavyweight that you can't really emulate him. That's why heavyweight boxing didn't really change after Clay/Ali. He simply could do things that not only his contemporaries couldn't match, but few fighters since.
I don't believe Ouma was a heavyweight unless he's recently put on a lot of pounds and made the jump.
Ali was one of the more hittable fighters who was not a bum or face first. By his own estimation, he was hit in the head 29,000 times in his career. He was fast and moved well, by the standards of the day they had seen nothing like him. But there was no new defensive aspect other than getting away from shots. He also couldn't deal with left hooks in a fashion other than leaning back. Once he had slowed down, which was by 1970 and not a day later, his defence involved holding behind the head, holding, rope-a-doping, and being hit. Ali was not a great defensive fighter by any stretch of the imagination.
Foreman (1st version)--screw technique, land power punches (although that may be a copy of the Baers) Foreman (2nd version)--bigger is better. if your workrate has to suffer, let it.
The Klitschko style is different than Lennox's. Robert, at Shant's site, described Lewis as having a pitcher's style and fighting from the mound. I always liked that description. I would say their style (Vitali pre-Sanders and Wlad post-Brewster 1) is basically relying on height, reflexes, the lead hand, and holding to completely control that a fight takes place on the outside and only going to the power hand when control has been completely established.
The biggest change to boxing philosophy is these days they make some money. Start living like kings and stop giving a fuck about the sport.
