Best Offense of the ATG Defensive Fighters, Best Defense of the ATG Offensive Fighters

I’m reluctant to mention Durán as the guy gets overplayed as it is, but it’ll be hard to top him in the latter category.

I’m often critical of him, especially his career & how it played out, but Jones Jr. would be at the peak end of the mountain among great defensive fighters with a frightening offense.

 

Roberto Duran

 

The former category is harder to choose for, at least for me.

For all his acute defensive abilities I guess I would nominate Benitez as having had very respectable offence, including nice targeting of the body.

 

Those aren’t seperate qualities and the answer is Jose Napoles for both! - misunderstanding similar to “Who is the better Counter Puncher” the whole game is counter punching lol everything is counter to the opponent down to your feet.

 

Some truth to yours too… Not that they are tied together in every instance but to be great they should be, slipping is the same motion as punching, punch with the opponent don’t take turns, you roll under a punch but when you do you hit them during the weave when they’re most vulnerable.

 

There's certainly some fighters that blur the lines. 60's Ali was ridiculously hard to hit clean but he could certainly whip those blinding combinations out. Dwight Qawi was superb defensively but had a top notch offense as well. I wouldn't overly label him a defensive or offensive fighter. Michael Spinks had possibly the most underrated defense of the 80's and his offense was devastating. All those guys were defensively excellent.

Early Wilfredo Gomez was an attacking fighter who could do slip punches almost with the best of them.

A defensively based fighter with a very good offense was Mayweather Jr, unpopular or not. With more Film Charlie Burley might be worthy of a mention. Whitaker wasn't a hard hitter but his high workrate return fire saw him seldom ever behind on the cards.

It's a solid topic and there's a lot of top mentions yet to surface.

 

Pretty Boy Floyd.

 

ATG defensive boxer with the best offense ? I might actually pick Floyd Mayweather Jr because he could fight aggressively when needed to and barely got hit with a clean punch.

ATG offensive boxer with the best defense ? It's got to be Roberto Duran hasn't it ? I would also pick Dwight Muhammad Qawi but he's not a ATG so didn't fit the criteria of the thread.

 

Defensive Fighter With The Greatest Offense - Pernell Whitaker or Floyd Mayweather Jr

Offensive Fighter With The Greatest Defense - Roberto Duran (Julio Cesar Chavez is an Honourable Mention)

 

Joe Louis - the pinnacle of punching economy and perfection, with subtle defensive expertise is up there for HWs.

Watch Joe pick off jabs with expert glove placement and parries, jabs with head off centre line, subtle foot movements and shifts to minimise danger.

Ezzard Charles, Napoles, Duran, Sweet Pete, Pretty Boy Floyd - very worthy mentions.

 

Hard to find a fighter with better jab defense than Louis, at least at heavyweight.

 

Floyd seems to fit the bill as good as anyone for defensive fighters with great offense.

James Toney, of course.

As for great offensive fighters with good defense,

I’ll throw in:
Evander Holyfield, great subtle defense on the inside, enabled him to fight up close with bigger men, good in and out footwork from mid-range and outside.

Julio Cesar Chavez was great at approaching and pressuring with responsible defense.

Joe Calzaghe, good feet, and slippery head movement, although it often looked awkward… especially when taking account for his work rate.

Usyk and Lomachenko probably fit the bill here too.