Better defensive skills: Holmes or Usyk?

I think prime Holmes beats Usyk.

 

Usyk by a distance I think. His defence is so layered and he very rarely gets hit clean. Maybe once against Gassiev and once against Fury with an uppercut but he still rolled both shots quite well from what I remember. I can't really imagine Usyk getting caught badly by Shavers and Snipes. This video does a good job of breaking down his defensive prowess:

This content is protected

 

Holmes was often defensively irresponsible, which ultimately resulted with him suffering some knockdowns he shouldn't have endured. Usyk is always on point.

 

Usyk gets hit less and has never been knocked down against way bigger punchers then Holmes ever fought. Holmes had good defense but he tended to get sloppy and get hit when he shouldn't have whereas Usyk rarely does.

This content is protected

Good video showing Usyk's defense in action.

 

Holmes could always be tagged by right hands see Snipes, Shavers, Tyson. He had great wheels though. Usyk hasn’t been in the division that long but is stellar defensively from what we’ve seen.

 

Holmes could get sloppy on defense. Usyk never gets sloppy like that. Easy advantage to Usyk here.

If you watch the times when Holmes was knocked down, it was usually his own fault, caught by shots he would have been fully capable of blocking or avoiding if he'd been on point there. Easy example is his fight with Tyson. At first, he's real careful, real alert, ties Tyson up at the right times. By the time of the knockdown, he'd started standing flat footed in front of Tyson at times. And, welp, bad idea, as we saw.

 

Usyk. His defensive skill is very, very rare in a HW. He doesn't have the natural reflexes and ability of a prime Ali, but he is so responsible with the fundamentals - having a high solid guard, bringing his hands back to guard when punching and keeping his chin tucked. He also have an active head movement. This might not seem like much, but it is. Especially at HW, where you seldom see such defensive responsibility.

 

If it's limited to parrying, ducking, dodging I'll go with Usyk.

Holmes had a notably higher overall ring IQ imo.

 

Usyk has a better overall defence without question. What's more his defence is integrated into his offence where he will bait shots so that he can slip and counter. He also uses his footwork as a means to show the other guy angles and profit off the situation.

 

Usyk gets hit clean all night by the jab, Holmes via KO, Tyson also blows out Usyk faster than he did Holmes

Usyk might have better fundamental defense but it's largely unproven, Holmes has the ring IQ, chin, jab, power, and is proven against real punchers

 

Usyk on paper but Holmes had x3 as many fights so of course you'd see more errors from Holmes over a much longer career.

 

No he didn't. Did you know that Holmes had an amateur record of 19-3. He learned how to fight mostly being a sparring partner. Uysk was 335-15 before he went pro. I know folks are going to jump down my ass and say the amateurs don't count and blah blah blah but they don't understand the level of competition Uysk faced before even going pro. He won gold at the Euros, World's and Olympics which means he has fought at the highest level since the early 2000's and the most decorated amateur heavyweight since Felix Savon.