Great thread. Found this late but...for my two pennies worth..
reg. Boyd: he hated the Phantom (" with enough power a plane may even fly sideways" etc).
Somehow he wasn't in harmony with some of the top folks at USN. He himself WAS an FWS instructor at Nellis who wrote the book (on air combat) and apparently he was considered unbeatable. A USMC Capt (Hal Vincent) is said to have fought him to a draw but not many others.
Still he got into a shouting match with Phantom God, Lt Mel Holmes (the 1st Topgun instructor who also wrote the first book on Phantom fighting in '69), as the latter thought that EM was great but it all basically boiled down to the pilot. And Holmes.. was one of those who could bend that phantom against a glider it seems...using spins to turn quicker in a slow fight etc...
Still a number of people have said that the Mig-21 was preferable and indeed a yardstick for that is in Steve Davies' book where the exceptional 4477th Red Eagle pilots would typically beat all comers on Day 1, be they F-14s, F-15s etc..All the hotshotS that have flown the Phantom said that it was at least the equal of the Mig-21 (even if some of them would have preferred the Mig-21!). Depends on version as well, as when the americans got hold of the F-4S version with the slats, that took some of the magic out of fighting the Phantom and turned it a bit more into a dogfighter...