Name the best orthodox defensive boxers to ever live

Ottke. Travel till cards and he for sure by american fans criteria was far better than Ali becuase he was undefeated.

Level approx not worse than Ali from 70ies cos he at least did not ate bombs in long rows and didn't needed rope and dope to avoid get KOed.

Better than Ali in 70 ies.

 

I agree with this except Marquez. His defense was not great. He got hit a lot.

 

James Toney was an extremely-difficult man to land meaningful punches on let alone hurt.

Pernell Whitaker also comes to mind.

 

Ali's movements had lost their elasticity when he returned to boxing in late-1970. By the time he was facing the likes of Quarry and Chuvalo in 1972, he was not a particularly-difficult man to hit. He jab was probably the best part of his defense at that point; he used it to keep fighters off of him.

 

Pep,Benitez for me before Benitez wrecked himself at a young age with drugs and booze the guy was amazing, Gene Tunney and Benny Leonard were also very good

 

Fair point, but that shouldn't erase the dozens of fights where Hamed was nigh on impossible to hit cleanly No ? keep well.

 

No love for Winkey???

 

Doesn't erase them but puts them in perspective when we're talking about the great defensive fighters of all time. You can't be a great defensive fighter when you weren't great defensively against good competition

 

Hard to look past Floyd, Toney and Whitaker

 

Winked was a southpaw.

 

Whitaker was a southpaw.

 

Oh yeah of course lol ! My bad

 

Understandable, whenever I hear a question with the words best defensive fighter in it, my mind automatically goes to Sweet Pea too.

 

Pea ofc was cool.