Fighters who were great at defending or resisting body shots

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by dmt, Aug 2, 2025.


  1. dmt

    dmt Hardest hitting hw ever Full Member

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    Who were the fighters who were great at either defending or resisting body shots?

    Ali is obviously the first one who comes to mind. Anyone else attempting rope a dope would have been stopped by brutal body shots.

    Canelo is hard to nail to the body because he is so good countering on top. I remember GGG being quite reluctant to go to his body due to the fast counters despite GGG normally being a great body puncher.
     
  2. Ike

    Ike Active Member Full Member

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    James Toney, besides having a great defense, has proven his resistance to body shots throughout his career, where he has faced two hard hitting body fighters, McCallum and Jirov.
     
  3. FThabxinfan

    FThabxinfan Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Duran ate a ton of body shots from Barkley and in the end his gas tank was surprisingly more full than Barkley.
     
  4. Yorbals

    Yorbals Active Member Full Member

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    Locche and Mayweather were good at defending against them, Leonard stood up to some brutal ones from Duran in Montreal
     
  5. Samart'sTeep

    Samart'sTeep Active Member Full Member

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    Winky Wright but he had a huge anatomical advantage in blocking body shots due to his long arms and short torso. Still impressive, though, how he was able to leave so few openings for his opponents with his high guard defense.
     
  6. Bulldog24

    Bulldog24 Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Rocchigiani blocked them v.well apart from v Eubank. The only time Eubank was great at leading off with accuracy was against a static target it seemed.
     
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  7. AwardedSteak863

    AwardedSteak863 Boxing Addict Full Member

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    You beat me to it. Toney was tough as nails to the body. Ike Quartey is another guy that could eat a shot downstairs. With his high guard, guys would always try to attack him downstairs but I can't think of a time when he ever was significantly hurt by a body shot. Lopez and Vargas really went after him downstairs.
     
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  8. FighterInTheWind

    FighterInTheWind Active Member Full Member

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    It's ironic that every third thread seems to involve Ali, and yet only the OP mentioned him a thread where Ali should be rightfully recognized? God knows how many opponents tried to get to Ali's body, and I don't ever remember him being seriously hurt there.
     
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  9. Devon

    Devon Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Dmitry Bivol when he fought Canelo, he was able to angle his elbow every time ever so slightly, to completely throws Canelo’s body shots off of their trajectory,
     
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  10. Mandela2039

    Mandela2039 OFFICIAL THREAD DIDDLER Full Member

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  11. Journeyman92

    Journeyman92 Mauling Mormon’s banned Full Member

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    I mean, Ali was good at “resisting” them but he was hit there a lot more than someone like say Toney… I see he’s been mentioned 3x rightfully so, great at countering body punches not just blocking them.
     
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  12. Reinhardt

    Reinhardt Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Nice call on that one
     
  13. Marvelous_Iron

    Marvelous_Iron Active Member Full Member

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    Ribalta and the shots he took from Tyson
     
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  14. dmt

    dmt Hardest hitting hw ever Full Member

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    Sure. There are 3 ways to be strong against body punching: either resisting them like Ali, blocking them like Toney or having such quick hands to counter punch that guys are reluctant to even attack your body ala Canelo. I guess i am just trying to see fighters who were really immune to great body punchers regardless of how they did it.
     
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  15. Journeyman92

    Journeyman92 Mauling Mormon’s banned Full Member

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    Toney, Walcott, Moore…