Fighters known for their guard

Archie Moore and his cross-armed guard.

Winky Wright and Marlon Starling used a very high guard.

Kirkland Laing, Herol Graham, Naseem Hamed were known for their low guard.

 

Locche always had his right hand pressed to his chin and hardly threw it.

 

Archie Moore, Ken Norton, Tim Witherspoon, George Foreman, Gene Fullmer, Bert Cooper, Joe Frazier and others using the crossgaurd, relatively speaking from the modern point of view.

Sandy Saddlery and George Foreman with their intense use of rear hand in their long guards, leading to labeling them as converted from southpaws (true in Saddler's case.)

Patterson, Torres, Tyson and their peekaboo.

 

Frazier used good head movement while in the cross guard too.

 

Gotta include Ali’s Rope-a-Dope in here somewhere.

 

Its best users always did. The Lock is just one part of the crossgaurd. It can be understood as 'armoring' the head movement, by limiting punch selection (such as folding against the uppercuts when dipping down) or when in a situation a more classic fighter would find himself out of position/out of spots to run.

You can think of it as switching a doe for a ram, with Foreman being an examplary crossguard juggernaut, showing how it can be used to manipulate the initiative and tempo of the engagements against younger fighters.

 

For an up-and-comer, how about Ben Whittaker? He's the reincarnation of Locche, with a bit of Hamed thrown in for good measure. Hands often completely down and avoiding punches off his absurd reflexes.

 

Completely unproven and got nailed often by an average fighter in his last fight, his height enables him to lean back from shots.

 

An effective guard? Blocking?

 

I wouldn’t call Nicolino Locche a counter punching master for the same reason I wouldn’t call Wilfredo Benitez that because the efforts were evasive minded first and not offensive.

 

Taking everything on the gloves isn’t effective blocking and just stops you being knocked out some of the time.

 

Floyd Patterson, Peek A Boo guard.