who has the best defense to offensive attack rating

James Toney. The man would stand right in front of his opponents all night and make them miss, then counter the **** out of them. A defensive wizard, no running, never took a step back.

 

This is a good topic. We'll have to get SlickStar in here too for his opinions on this, but RJJ, Mayweather , BHop, and James Toney deserve top mentions. Imma go with Mayweather JR as best defensive wizard in the game.

RJJ & Toney lost a lot of what they used to be. RJJ don't have the twitch no mo' , we'll have to see how he continues to downward spiral. BHop still got game.

 

Imo also Toney and RJJ.

 

at this point, mayweather,donaire and vitali

 

say what...

 

Mayweather is technically more skilled defensively.... but RJJ in his prime had athleticism and reflexes that were almost super human. The problem is, when his physically ability started to fade... he lacked the technically skill to keep him from taking punishment like Hopkins has been able to do.

 

This.

 

toney and whitaker

 

what hurts about watching Roy is how he would just hold his hands high and stand there along the ropes clueless

You won't ever catch Floyd doing that.

 

Absolutely.

Much better than anyone else listed.

Pea and Pep are A+ level, the others are B+/A level in comparison.

 

My short list of the best defensive boxers ever go:
1. Pep
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2. Whitaker
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3. Mayweather
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4-10. etc. (Hopkins and RJJ amongst this group, Toney too, also I'd likely put Jack Johnson ahead of two of them, he was far ahead of the game defensively and his defense to offensive ability shows up on his major highlights)

 

Its a good question. I think Mayweather has a better transition from defense to offense when he makes you miss, but that Roy could take advantage, react, to openings Mayweather couldn't due to his phenomenal speed.

I actually think Mayweather's best asset, is his legs, that he wouldn't be anywhere near as good defensively without them, that said, I also think Roy's greatest asset beside his speed, was his footwork, not necessarily his ability to use his legs, but his footwork.

Its not easy to set attacks up when you dont create your openings with the jab, but one of the ways to do this, is if you have an ability to get your feet into position by manipulating the angles, only its not easy to do against good fighters, cause if you dont make the right decisions, and have your hands down 95% of the time, you can pay a big price. Soon as you choose the wrong option, make the wrong decision about when to come in, come in on the line instead of creating your angles, and you have your hands down, your leaving yourself very exposed to getting knocked out. Roy's footwork and speed was so good, he was able to negate this, but did it against good fighters.


I dont think there are many fighters who had a greater ability for creating angles with their footwork than Roy Jones.

 

Roy doesn't have defense. He relied on his reflexes to save his ass and when the reflexes were gone, he got exposed in having a glass jaw because he didn't have the boxing fundamentals.