r/Boxing • u/Wool_God • 1d ago

Best "Slow" Boxers

Slowest and Fastest Hands in Boxing

After Hrgovic's win, I watched some clips of Hrgovic and then Zhilei Zhang. These guys look athletically unremarkable. Yet, clearly, they're highly skilled and intelligent boxers. Zhang, in particular, seems to really know how to land meaningful shots while not moving or throwing very much.

Who are some other boxers with slow hands or feet that were still successful? What made them so effective, despite not being elite in speed?

There are the obvious guys: Marciano, Foreman, Beterbiev, Golovkin, Winky, JCC Sr. Who else?

55 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

80

u/QueenCityCobra 1d ago

I don’t think Golovkin was slow

42

u/NaughtyNildo 1d ago

No, think he was just normal. Obviously at the highest levels there were dudes who were faster, but that doesn’t make him slow. More like Monzon, known for pressure and workrate than speed.

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

Yeah. That's a good way to put it. He had normal speed and was waaay above normal in overall ability.

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u/CatC15Fan 1d ago

Ggg certified monster Had everything

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

I wouldn't say he was slow. Maybe that he didn't have remarkable speed for the level that he boxed at. The handspeed difference against Canelo was very noticeable.

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u/QueenCityCobra 1d ago

Your post is about slow boxers not average speed boxers

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u/Wool_God 18h ago

What I'm trying to get at is if we can look at how they tactically, technically, strategically beat guys who were faster than them.

For example, GGG found himself eating heavy counters from Canelo. So, he switched to a more conservative strategy of walking Canelo down behind a jab and winning through positioning.

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u/papavino39 22h ago

Oh really? I thought it was a fair enough characterization. I’d describe his style as plodding and menacing.

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u/Wool_God 18h ago

His style in the pros was definitely more deliberately grounded so as to generate more power. GGG + Max + Abel really knew what they were doing.

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u/TipNomLives Holyfield>Prime Tyson 16h ago

Relatively I think it's a fair assessment. For a middleweight his handspeed wasn't the fastest. In the Canelo, Jacobs and Brook fights he was being pretty badly outsped at points, and even earlier in his career against Kassim Ouma there were points were Ouma would land 3 or 4 shots to Golovkins 1. These aren't guys that I'd consider to be speed demons either. They're all decently fast but nowhere near a Roy Jones for example or even a James Toney or Michael Nunn

63

u/_Sarcasmic_ bread burger bread 1d ago

Zhang has slow feet but deceptively fast hands. Bakole too.

14

u/Wool_God 1d ago

He slips and counters so well. And I'm like, how are you 270 lb and not getting hit?

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u/six67seven_67 1d ago

Might be a timing thing. They're both good counter punchers 

1

u/papavino39 22h ago

I’d say any successful pro boxer is actually fast on a grand scale… figure this conversation is interesting if you limit it to those who were slow on a successful-pro-boxer scale

92

u/MiDKnighT_DoaE 1d ago

Comeback Foreman was slow but if he got you with one it hurt.

38

u/Frippertron42 1d ago

Holyfield said he was really slow but had impeccable timing

26

u/Ace_FGC 1d ago

Yeah he said Foreman was so slow that it made it hard to time him. He’d dodge and still get hit by the punch because Foreman threw the punch slower than he expected lol

3

u/pu238 23h ago

“He is as slow as Christmas”

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

The 1-2 against Moorer. Holy shit

39

u/Stunning-Use-7052 1d ago

Zhang has fast hands.

I kinda wonder WTF the guy was doing the first 33 years of his life or whatever. He turned pro really late.

Holyfield described Foreman as "Slow as Christmas". Always liked that.

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

Probably boxing in the amateurs and then getting iced out of big fights.

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u/optimaldt 1d ago edited 21h ago

Zhang isn't slow, pretty fast hands for a big boy. Just low output. Plodding feet.

24

u/sub_zero_immortal 1d ago

Ruiz has slow feet and fast hands

21

u/save-pandas 1d ago

GGG was deliberately slow. He stalked fighters down like Michael Meyers

9

u/Wool_God 1d ago

He just seemed to hit people at precisely the right times

12

u/save-pandas 1d ago

Violently

16

u/CatC15Fan 1d ago

Ggg jab wasn't slow He just made it look easy

13

u/NickyFoles1020 1d ago

Timing beats speed

Mikey Garcia is a prime example

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

Bro. Prime Mikey was sick. Fun fact, I met him randomly in a parking lot once. Dude was super chill.

3

u/NickyFoles1020 1d ago

So fundamentally sound and not the fastest. But had incredible timing

13

u/Sarcastic_Clunt 1d ago

Joe joyce is way over the hill now but he was the slowest fighter ive seen. He was really good until zhang destroyed him. I was a big fan

15

u/ThugjitsuMaster Tyson Fury's Nutritionist 1d ago

Carl Froch had a great career for a guy who looked slower than most of the guys he fought. I always thought it was funny that his nickname was the Cobra, it didn't suit his style at all

8

u/anakmager 1d ago

and he fought with a style that much more suited for fast fighter. At range, hands down, leaping left hooks etc. He really was a bizzare fighter that somehow made it all work

2

u/CanadianPapaKulikov 1d ago

Idk cobras are not that fast but deadly. There was a show called Sport science that measured the speed of a Conrad's strike against the speed of a Chad Dawson's jab and the jab was twice as fast.

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

I am not going to test the "cobras are not that fast" theory. I'll leave that to the Indian dudes with sticks and burlap sacks.

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u/The_Archimboldi 1d ago

Monzon might be the greatest. One of the best middleweights of all time, yet he moved slow and methodical.

Seemed to embody spacing - fought long behind a superb jab, dictated pace, and always looked physically stronger.

Looked like he'd be vulnerable to getting outskilled or swarmed, but it never happened afaik and he fought legends.

3

u/stephen27898 1d ago edited 1d ago

Hrgovic isnt slow. I would say he's average for speed.

Slow feet and fast hands is actually not that uncommon at HW. Zhang and Ruiz are great examples.

Foreman had slow hands, but his footspeed when he was young was good. The reason Ali went to the ropes was because he realised that to stay away from Foreman he was having to move like 3 steps to Foremans 1.

Beterbiev I wouldnt call slow. Neither would I call GGG slow. These guys are not explosive but they arent slow. If they were slow, someone would have exploited it and beaten them with it.

The truth is that truly slow fighters dont tend to win much at the top level. You don't need to be lighting fast to be elite, but you need to be fast enough in certain areas.

Also speed within a category is not uniform. An example is Tyson Fury. When he light shots his hands have good speed. When he goes for power his hands are actually pretty slow.

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u/YoutubePRstunt 22h ago

Big George, slow as Christmas but would light you up like fireworks.

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u/Tricky-Ad-4823 21h ago

Chavez, Beterbiev, Winky and GGG were not even close to being slow. That’s a wild ass take.

1

u/Wool_God 18h ago

That's fair. I think what I'm really trying to ask is: "How do these different champions defeat the speed advantages their opponents had?"

They're all about average in foot speed with good, not amazing, hand speed.  They beat fighters who were way faster in one or both regards.

1

u/Tricky-Ad-4823 17h ago

Speed isn’t the be all end all and no they do not have average foot speed they have great feet. Guys like Chavez, Beterbiev, GGG and Winky had amazing feet and were masters at cutting off the ring and using angles. It’s been pointed out in this threat but it’s true timing beats speed everyday

2

u/Ace_FGC 1d ago

Salvador Sanchez was not a fast fighter. Alexis Arguello also was not fast

2

u/rodka209 1d ago

Exactly. Not exactly fast hands, or feet in argeullos case. But timing and rhythm is definitely a better skill than athleticism alone.

1

u/HopelessUtopia015 1d ago

That was my opposite impression of Zhang, the guy has really quick hands, in his early fights he let them go a lot more, then he matured to the pro game and learn to conserve his energy.

1

u/specialbatweirdo 1d ago

Dubois has slow hands but great timing. Also good balance, footwork and accuracy.

1

u/AlarmedShare3444 1d ago

Shannon Briggs. 

Won the WBO belt and has most 1st round KOs in HW history. 

Not fast at all and could gas, but strong as 10 oxen and had some decent skills despite hia weaknesses. 

1

u/stephen27898 1d ago

Briggs was fast when he was fresh. He was extremely explosive.

In the 90s he probably had the fastest hands of any heavyweight, and if not the fastest he was certianly up there.

1

u/Fiscal_Bonsai 1d ago

Arguello

1

u/WORD_Boxing 17h ago

Joe Louis is sort of the poster boy for this. Excellent footwork timing and fundamentals but not exactly greased lightning.

1

u/tydynamite 17h ago edited 16h ago

Artur Beterbiev also comes to mind. Maybe it's cuz he started the pros so late. I also don't think Davis Benavidez has fast feet. His hands make up for it.

1

u/Halloween2056 13h ago

Older George Foreman.

0

u/Jawa1992 1d ago

Hopkins 

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u/Wool_God 1d ago

Prime Hopkins was pretty damn fast. Look at him vs Glen Johnson.