A boxing fight can unfold so quickly, particularly if your opponent is blessed with lightning hand speed.
Some can fly through the guard and drop the best to the canvas, before they even have time to muster a defence.
Within training and when it comes down to the bright lights of fight night, fast hands can see you through.
Some of the sport’s legendary greats have possessed rapid ability to throw punches in seconds, including Floyd Mayweather, Sugar Ray Robinson and Roy Jones Jr.
And now there is a new era of lightning quick fighters taking up the mantle.
Here are six fighters who possess the most frightening hand speed in the squared circle as of today.
Junto Nakatani
Nakatani is known for his technical brilliance, and scarily quick hand speed.
The current WBC world bantamweight champion is the number one in the division right now, and is lightning hands have helped him wipe out all 30 of his professional opponents.
Despite possessing some natural power, his ability to have landed punches before his rivals are able to respond and counter, is becoming a real problem.
He seems on a one-way course to clash with Naoya Inoue in a bumper all-Japanese affair, a real clash of technical hand speed and resulting power.
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez
One of the sport’s brightest rising stars, Rodriguez has detonated some powerful and lighting quick blows already in his 21-fight professional career.
A champion at both flyweight and super flyweight, the naturally quicker-handed divisions have currently had no match for the seriously gifted Mexican.
His hand speed has already seen him dismantled some other lightning fast hitters including Sunny Edwards and Juan Francisco Estrada.
A pound-for-pound great, his gift of speed and ability to detonate barrages of crunching shots see him on a journey to the top.
Vasyl Lomachenko
Despite being inactive right now, the Ukrainian still has his lightning fast weapons in tact.
Lomachenko earned a reputation as one of the fastest boxers on the planet, a technical genius who has outboxed rivals without even giving them a sniff of catching up.
He has fought in some epic wars with some fellow fast-handed champions, including Jorge Linares, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez.
Some huge fights could lay in store for Lomachenko before he retires and there are talks of a clash with another entrant on the list, Gervonta Davis.
AFPInoue’s yet to be beaten and is on his way to a one-sided legacy[/caption]
Naoya Inoue
Inoue is one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best right now, and his incredible hands with speed and power making him one of the sport’s elite.
‘The Monster’ is notorious primarily for his punching power, which has seen him reign as a world champion in four weight classes.
Some huge fights could lay in waiting for Inoue, including against the likes of Nick Ball and fellow entrant Nakatani.
But what is for sure is that Inoue’s hands need to be seen to be believed, but you can’t blink.
Gervonta Davis
Davis is one of boxing’s fastest in terms of hand speed, a technique and physical attribute he has always possessed.
Being a protege of Mayweather, ‘Tank’ has shown off his lightning speed in both training footage, and when flattening his rivals in fights.
Naturally the American has been up against some of the fastest fighters around and prevailed so far.
He even won the battle of the fastest hands right now against Ryan Garcia in 2023, with his power combining to give him one of the most dangerous skillsets in the sport.
Ryan Garcia
With perhaps the quickest hands in boxing alongside Davis, Garcia is one of boxing’s fastest and most dynamic fighters.
The young star has regularly shown off his speedy hands both in the gym and in the ring when it counts.
Despite being beaten by Davis, he once again showed his boxing capabilities and has the speed to see him fly by to the top of the sport.
In his recent display over Devin Haney, a victory which was later overturned, he showed exactly why the Garcia name is one to be feared.
