That was pre Martinez match, now he absolutely must pay.:deal And hopefully a very high unpleasant ugly price at the hands of GGG.
One thing is to fight defensively and another is to fight scared. Crawford is a brilliant defensive fighter, yet he has no problem gaining casual fans respect.
Hopkins, Calderon, Mayweather, Marquez, Winky, Wladimir... some of the best in the era are defensive wizards of varying sorts. People always fall for the offensive fighter with power. 'Tis the natural thing to do for people who want entertainment to find the one doing damage, not evading or capitalizing on it, to be the more fun to watch.
The real skill is to be defensive but entertaining. Look at Payakaroon's KO over Meza for a great example of combining the two
Duran was an expert at combining the two. He would sit in the pocket make you miss (against Barkley he avoided 6 punches) then in split second come back with a vengeance. Why could he do this? Because he was always in punching range and was able to avoid punches without moving out of range.
Those were things Duran worked at. Guys like him would shadow box for an hour in front of a mirror putting together subtleties like working range with footwork and upper body movement and combine punch selection with angles. Then put it together in bag work and sparring. Of course he trained less later in his career and spent a lot of time in training trying to lose weight, but when he came in shape he would put it all together.