12 Most Underrated Boxers in Sweet Science History

[Master]

Ezzard Charles underrated? He is considered the best LHW ever to most boxing experts.

Some say it is Archie Moore but I agree with you.

Who? I’ve never seen anybody say that. Moore might not even be top 5. Actually, he most likely isn’t top 5.

Most books I have read have Archie number 1 and certainly in the top 5.

[Yuzo]

i like billy petrolle. he really dared you to hit him, and when you punched, he punched. he turned boxing him into a game of chance. and boxing really is a game of chance ultimately.

that sounds a little crazy but he had an advantage here actually. his head was always moving. really hard to hit. that is because he would repeatedly lean his upper body over his front leg which is the stance you will naturally end up in after throwing your right hand with a weight transfer. kind of like throwing a right hand without throwing a right hand if you can imagine. it looked like he was just sticking his head out there for you to hit, but actually he could punch off this motion, so if you tried to hit him, he always could hit you. would you try to hit him? that is an interesting dilemma. billy petrolle was essentially a human mouse trap.

it helped that, since he held his hands low, his arms were always free to punch. when you have to keep your hands up to block, you always have to switch back between blocking and punching, which in my opinion can be a little excessive. you might even say overthinking. head moves. hands punch. simple.

[X]

This smells a bit like a copy and paste job, Master ...... you naughty boy

I definitely don't agree with that list very much! Gene Tunney, Floyd Patterson - in fact nearly all of them - are legends of the sport. Jeffries was unbeaten during his prime and is still famous a hundred years later!

The two most 'obscure' guys, Quarry and Burley, are most certainly well known to boxing fans and aficionados, and none of these people are genuinely underrated.

If we want to talk about underrated 'fighters', what about names like Khosai Galaxy, Bennie Brisco or Pinklon Thomas?

Or, fighters who were underrated as far as their boxing skills go?

Buddy McGirt and Marlon Starling have already been mentioned, and they are good calls. I would add Mike McCallum to that. Roberto Duran had very underrated skills and smarts in the ring.

One of the most underrated 'boxers' in my opinion was Tommy Hearns.

Certainly not underrated as a fighter' a genuine legend ..... but as a pro he is famous for blitzing people, for spectacular knockouts and for devastating hitting - but he was a master boxer.

He never got outboxed in his career, he finessed Virgil Hill and many other famous technicians, and was the only man to outbox and outsmart Ray Leonard (twice!)

Massively underrated as a pure boxer

[Spicoli]

Great call on Briscoe. Crazy to think Galaxy and a few others from Thailand were blazing trails for kickboxers and Muay thai to cross over to boxing long before mma-ufc blew up. Then again maybe he just followed Tex Cobbs pro Karate trail . Galaxy is a guy you wish boxing could 'have back' to see him share the tests and have the world wide exposure lighter divisions know today. He ran up insane title defenses and then inexplicably just decided to retire on his own terms as champion after a decade long undefeated streak.

[Master]

Briscoe had his chances against the top fighters and lost.

Galaxy was a beast.