Better Defensive Skills Among These 5:

Definitely not Armstrong. He took a lot of damage. Made people miss, too, but caught a lot on his face. That is not to say he did not nullify his opponent's offence; he did, by way of suffocation (or just complete domination around 130lbs); but that is defending by way of attack and a slightly different subject.

Hagler over Chavez for me. In those prime years he was collected, fundamentally faithful and possessive of a variety of non-offensive skills, from a cross-arm defence and shot-slipping to elusive footwork and pivots.

 

I picked Tyson from 87-89

 

I imagine a prime Tyson took the fewest punches per round, but taking quality of opposition and variety of techniques into account, the answer is Hagler.

 

Between Hagler and Chavez for me.

 

Jung Koo Chang

 

I need to watch some youtube. I'm glad Armstrong made this list his D. gets overshdowed by his offense.

In my opinion, because boxing is a sport. It's more important when i rate boxing defense to make the other guy miss than it is to block a punch. While self defense and preservtion are important in boxing. Showing the judges and everyone else watching that your oppoent can't hit you is more important.

 

Jofre, Hagler and Chavez were all very good defensive fighters in their prime.

Technically i think Hagler was the most varied, being that he had he best legs as well as being fully schooled in all the upper body slips and glove-arm\block\parry techniques a fundamentally sound boxer-puncher needs.

Chavez much the same really, but his legs weren't quite as good and i don't think he had quite the same reflexive ability as Hagler, though arguably a better radar up close.He tended to take more flush punches when fighting very good fighters than Hagler did imo, though he does have the argument that he was struggling with the weight for Laporte\LOckridge.

Both fell away defensively as they got into the latter stages of their prime and "roboticised" to an extent.Likely brought on also by both knowing that as they slowed reflexively, they could fall back on great durablity.IF they had possessed lesser mandibles, maybe they would have kept the defensive chops sharper.

There isn't as much footage of Jofre so it's a bit tougher to compare them.I see him in a similar category from what there is.He's got great ability to pick punches off on his gloves and generally deflect blows.Good upperbody movement and good footwork, though his feet are probably the slowest and least capable as a defensive weapon of the three.

Tyson and Armstrong employed variations of the Bob N Weave so are obviously on a higher level

 

Chavez. When he wanted to be, he was darned near Pernell Whitaker-ish in his defense.

 

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Tyson.

 

1. Jofre
2. Chavez
3. Hagler
4. Armstrong
5. Tyson