Lets not talk about Power anymore, But instead your personal top 5 defensive fighters

Looche
Whitaker
Pep
Benitez
Mayweather

Honourable mentions: Benton, Toney, Starling, Wright

 

Whitaker
Canto
Toney
Benitez
Jones jr

 

1. Lennox Lewis
2. Roberto Duran
3. James Toney
4. Bernard Hopkins
5. Pernell Whitaker

Duran best combined/integrated his offense and defense. Always moving forward but using angles, slipping, rolling and on top of his opponent with either hand punching.

Lewis was the best master of distance that Ive seen box. Using his height and range as well as anybody Ive seen.

Toney was great defensively but his style cost his offense a little bit more. The exaggerated rolling and even taking his eyes off his opponent at times.

Whitaker was just perfection. Standing in the pocket and countering. Check out his fight with Harold Brazier { a good journeymen} it was boxing perfection.

 

Young Griffo- unquestionably the greatest of his era
Willie Pep- ditto
Nicolino Locche
Wilfred Benitez
Pernell Whitaker

Marlon Starling and Jimmy Young both rank highly too.

 

Whitaker
Mayweather
Pep
Griffo
Chang

 

Defense for me is the art of not getting hit while also setting up your punches and being effective. I like to see the flashiness of Mayweather, Whitaker, and Toney...but I have seen fighters less flashy on defense accomplish the same feats all the while maintaining offense.

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He did not use all of the tools, like movment, ducking, and slipping. he just parried everything you threw and laughed at you. Little use of energy. Ali and Walcott were also great. I would take Walcott in the traditional sense but he was not as effective as Ali and Ali was not as effective defensively as Johnson.

MIDDLEWEIGHT:

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Seriously, Hagler is very underated in his boxing skills and defense. He was great at slipping, ducking, and parrying. He was able to get on his toes and jab off his back foot, all the while throwing in combination. I cannot find a close rival for Hagler. Maybe Langford, Robinson, or Monzon but, Hagler was rarely hit clean and on top of all the tools he had defensively, he was also able to switch his stance.

WELTERWEIGHT:

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When he wanted to he could become unhittable in the inside. He would start off on the outside, slip your jab and be in your chest before you could scream for help. Once inside he was slipping, rolling and punching almost simultaneously. As good as Gavlian, Whitaker, Benitez, Ross and Leonard were on defense, I have a really hard time seeing them being effective defensively against Hank however, I see hank being able to duck and punch on them at will.

LIGHTWEIGHT:

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(The best defensive fighter all-time in my oppinion)

At his best he worked off the jab, slipped, rolled, countered, and ducked his way inside and battered fighters there with quick and strong combinations, all the while ducking and slipping. I can see arguments for Whitaker, Ross, Leonard, Williams, Canzoneri, and Buchanan but at the end of the day none of them would be able to outbox Duran at this weight.

FEATHERWEIGHT:

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Seriously, his footwork itself puts him up there with Duran, but on top of that he ducked, slipped, parried, gave angles, counter punched. It would not be too much of a stretch to call him the greatest pure boxer of all time. Freddie Miller and Flash Elorde get nod from me as well. I am aware that considering Duran and not Pep the greatest defensive fighter of all-time is reason to wonder if I understand boxing at all but, I like I preferenced at the begining of this post, I prefer effective offense side by side with effective defense. Pep most of the time was out of punching range when he made you miss.

 

Mayweather, Whitaker, Toney, Ali (in his prime), Tyson (at his peak).

 

1.Rocky Marciano
2.Sugar Nikolai Valuev
3.Tex Cobb
4.Mariusz "twinkle toes" Wach
5.Primo Carnera

 

Cory Spinks was always a guy boxing fans loved to hate, but if you examine him objectively, you have to admit his defensive was astonishing at when he was focused and in his prime. He basically had every high-level defensive facility you could as for: brilliant footwork, head/shoulder/foot feints, blocking and parrying, a knack for staying away from the ropes etc. Unfortunately he didn't watch his weight, he drank too much, he didn't train right, and he always seemed to be too fond of his opponents to throw punches with conviction.

In a few years I think Guillermo Rigondeaux will be a viable candidate for a Top 10 list of great defensive boxers. He has all the traits I list for Spink, but he's far more advanced in every category. He also has an ability to anticipate punches before they're even thrown which recalls a prime Whitaker.