Handspeed - Underrated, Overrated, Rated Correctly

Overrated handspeed:

Floyd - This is because mainstream fans all think he's the fastest fighter ever. All of them. Very quick hands in his prime, but the speed of his mind was always greater than the speed of his hands. Not even top 10 all time in terms of raw handspeed, but the don't tell that to the mainstream.

Terry Norris - Norris had very fast hands, but looking back, not blinding as some would describe. I think the fluidity of his combinations impressed me more than his handspeed.

Joey Calz - Impressive handspeed for a supermiddle, but kinda deceptive considering outta his combinations there were a lot of slaps incorporated with the real punches.

Underrated handspeed:

Ismael Laguna: The forgotten speed demon. Laguna had faster hands than Floyd.

Bob Foster: He shouldn't just be known for his power. His hands were wickedly fast.

Hearns: Similar to Foster, only Tommy's speed usually gets it just due. But sometimes, I do think people tend to overlook how lightning fast he was.

Trinidad: I was watching Tito-Blocker the other night. Tito definitely doesn't get enough credit for his handspeed. Say what you want about his ponderous feet, but his hands were extremely quick.

Young Foreman: Yup, I said it. The common myth is that young Foreman was some sloth. He really wasn't. Wild, and crude at times, yes. But his hands weren't slow. Neither were his feet. COMEBACK Foreman was slow.... early to mid 70s Foreman was not the slug history portrays him as.

Correctly rated handspeed:

Jones, Leonard, and Tyson: Three guys every bit as fast as the hype.

 

Agreed pretty much on all, bar Foreman.

 

Watch Foreman-Frazier. 1 and even II.

70s Foreman really wasn't slow. He wasn't FAST either, but the myth says that he punched like he was under water. Which wasn't the case.

 

He wasn't ben Tackie, but he was slow for an elite fighter

 

Underrated handspeed: Rodrigo Valdez.

Sorta like Tito. Known as a puncher with ponderous feet.

But had fast hands to go with the big power.

 

Overrated - Sugar Ray Robinson.

Based on his myth he was 'the perfect 10' in every category of boxing. Looking on his fights, he is fast but not in the class of Leonard or Pacquiao.

Willie Pep is another one. Great defensive fighter but not among the fastest

 

Overrated hand speed

Khan- He was fast for maybe the first couple rounds, but he was easily countered by fighters with less speed that just threw punches with better timing/precision.

Underrated hand speed

Hopkins- I've been watching a lot of his 90s fights recently. Very quick handed guy. And his feints and unpredictability made his hand speed more effective.

Correctly rated hand speed

Hector Camacho- I think pound 4 pound, maybe Roy Jones is the only one that possessed a faster set of hands.

 

I think it's pretty much the consensus feeling that Leonard had faster hands than Robinson, while Robinson had more power than Leonard.

Make no mistake though, Robinson had extremely fast hands. The KO of Graziano is a good example of his speed and power combined in one combo.

 

I think De La Hoya's hand speed is somewhat underrated largely because he got beat by a few guys who were even quicker.

 

Great pick. I watched some Hopkins fights from the 90s recently too and I had forgotten how quick he actually was. Anyone who claims that Hagler was levels above him should remind themselves

 

Hopkins was probably faster than Hagler imo. Less smooth of a boxer, but probably faster

Overrated: Camacho. I often see him rated among the fastest ever. He wasn't close to that.

 

Absolute hogwash regarding Camacho. People can say whatever they want about him - that he was overrated, a runner, a waste, a cokehead, ect... all might be true. But his handspeed lived up to the hype. He had MIND BLOWINGLY fast hands.

To me, number #2 behind Jones.

 

Just proved my point. He's not even close to be the 2nd fastest fighter ever

 

I think Oscar's speed is rated correctly. When people say positive things about him, speed is usually of the first attributes mentioned.

He just wasn't absurdly fast like Jones, Leonard, Taylor, Ali, ect....

Not as fast as Hearns either, and Tommy had tier 2 handspeed.

Oscar's handspeed was tier 3, which is very fast, just not super fast.

 

Name 5 guys with faster hands than the 130-135 Camacho.

 

P4p: Hearns was faster. ALi was faster, Jones was way faster, Tyson was faster. Mosley was faster (he was throwing with speed and power). Taylor was about as fast as Camacho. Pac man also was at least as fast as Camacho

 

I hink Hamed had Overrated speed. He was sneaky and unorthodx, but his handspeed wasn't as good as advertised imo

 

130lb Hector Camacho was ABSURDLY Fast w/his Hands...






REED:mj:

 

I'll give you Ali and Tyson.

Not Hearns. Not Pac either.

Maybe Taylor, but I think Camacho was faster. And if you asked the late Howard Davis, I'm sure he'd agree that Camacho was faster than Taylor.

 

He was very very fast, but not anything close to being the 2nd fastest fighter ever

 

It's arguable, I admit.

The only thing I think we'll all agree on is Roy being the fastest ever. Really no debate to that.

 

Rewatched Camacho against Limon. He was faster than I reminded (guess I watched too much of his 140 fights). Still don't think he's as fast as you say, but it is indeed arguable

 

Only fight of Camacho at 140 where he was still super fast is the Davis fight. That's actually a great indicator, because Davis had all time fast hands also. Camacho made him look slow. Something Taylor couldnt do.

By time Camacho was fighting guts like Haugen and Paz, his hands were no longer as fast

 

The first overrated name that came to mind was Howard Davis. He really wasn't all that fast and it showed against Camacho. I've heard that fight described as "the most hand speed ever in a ring" but Davis looked average in every regard.

 

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Most people have forgotten about Howard Davis, so he's definitely not overrated at the moment.

Davis had extremely fast hands. Not top 5 all time, but likely in the 10-15 range.

I agree with PR earlier when he said Khan's handspeed is overrated.

 

I've said this before, Mel Taylor's handspeed is overrated. Don't get me wrong, his hands were fast as all FUCK! DEFINITELY the fastest guy in the history of 140. But there's A LOT of people that claim he had the GOAT handspeed, and I don't see it. He had a tendency to arm punch a lot. When he put full body weight behind his shots, he was still extremely fast, but not AS fast.

I think Jones, Leonard, Camacho, Ali, and Tyson were faster than Taylor, P4P. I'd probably put Mel right behind those 5, and then Mosley after Taylor.

 

I think Michael Nunn's handspeed is underrated.

Save for Roy, there hasn't been any other middleweight with the handspeed of Nunn in the last 30 years.

 

Ken Buchanon had really fast hands. The first time I saw him fight I was shocked people didn't talk about his hand speed more.

 

I never felt like meldrick Taylor's speed lived up to the hype.

 

Wilfred Benitez definitely belongs in underrated handspeed. He simply had the misfortune of looking slow against two speed Gods Leonard and Hearns. Benitez didn't have extremely FAST hands, but he had extremely QUICK hands.