Modern outside fighters.

[VG_Addict]

What current fighters would you classify as outside fighters, or pure boxers?

[Master]

Rigo would be my first thought as a pure skilled boxer who likes to stay on the outside.

[mikeeod]

The obvious one for me is Wlad Klitschko. Brook likes to box behind the jab as well. I find that, historically/generally speaking, European fighters tend to fight from the outside, and are usually very fundamentally sound when it comes to technique.

[Master]

And Cubans

[vidgil]

Wlad. If he wasn't outside he'd grab and hold like a sissy so he could get back outside. Purest outside fighter you can get.

[Master]

Keith Thurman after this weekend?

[wanderingfighter]

The obvious one for me is Wlad Klitschko. Brook likes to box behind the jab as well. I find that, historically/generally speaking, European fighters tend to fight from the outside, and are usually very fundamentally sound when it comes to technique.

The heavyweight american fighters in the bare knuckle era at the early stages were all inside fighters and clinchers. What we know of as "out boxing" was made popular by English boxers and borrowed heavily from fencing. This was an stylistic match up back then between fighters from both countries, and of course it had a lot of patriotism and pride behind it. I'm not exactly sure when out boxing became popular in the states though. But once upon a time, what we know of today as Mexican style was American style.

[Beanz]

Talk of pure boxers reminds me of the idea of 'Authenticity' or 'Selling out' in music. It is very subjective and one man's pleasure is another man's poison. There is a solid deep history now of techniques on which to draw and the ability to at least always have an alternative or plan B in one's arsenal often seems to be the deciding factor. Not a 'Plan B' hatched by the coach but an innate flexibility and ability to be able to improvise on the spot in the heat of it. Outside fighting is effective but very one dimensional if you are being negated and the other guy has you tied up. Alternatives are not only essential bit the ability to move into them fluidly is what gives you that space, that opportunity to make you style count.