Fighters With An Underrated Defense

Michael Spinks is a special here. His extreme power and other assets always overshadowed his great defense. Eddie Futch rated him in the top 2 in the world at one time defense wise.

 

that is a powerful entry michael spinks,

spinks i felt could contort his body to be out of danger of a punches like whitaker but without that image of finesse... so it looked herky jerky.

 

He didn't look pretty but man could be block a punch for someone not reknowned for it. Very very subtle in his own way.

 

Spinks is a good one. His ability to not get hit is hardly talked about, but readily apparent.

 

David Tua , Oliver McCall and Reggie Johnson.
Can't excuse everything on their "chins".
Especially when Tua and McCall were aggressive in their nature and not some Pernell Whitakers whom BTW , of what I've seen rarely fought in his fights , just escaped trouble for the entire or nearly all 12 rounds.
Reggie Johnson could have his spurts of aggression as he has shown when he had James Toney in trouble after knocking him down , so he was not a totally defensive fighter.

 

You've never seen Whitaker overcome adversity in standing and fighting against De La Hoya or Hurtado?

 

peter buckley........prove me wrong

 

Rocky Marciano...

 

Actually Lennox Lewis developed a pretty decent defence after a while. He still had lapses, but when he was focused, it was tough for an opponent to catch him with any more than one clean shot at a time.

 

Simon was fun to watch, you really got your money's worth with him. He was also very very good for a few years. He was actually the favorite when he fought Buddy McGirt.

I'd add Rocky Marciano to the list... he did a lot of subtle things in the ring to avoid punches or at least absorb punches.

 

Frazier for sure, he made Ali miss a lot of punches... sure Ali hit Frazier a lot as well but most people didn't make Ali miss as often as Frazier did.

 

Victor Callejas.

 

This is an excellent observation and true. I've spoken to a very astute boxing guy/historian and he rates Frazier as one of the very best at slipping jabs and closing distance.Good call.

 

Carmen Basilio had better defensive skills than he is given credit for. If he hadn't, Robinson probably would have laid him out the same way he did with Fullmer in their second battle.

 

That was the first one I thought of. :good

Floyd Patterson. He is often overlooked when speaking of aggressive swarmer-type fighters. People talk about Dempsey, Marciano, Frazier and Tyson, compare them but let out Patterson. He had decent head and very good upperbody movement, his crouch worked very good as defensive tool and his peek-a-boo defense only added to it.

Tony Canzoneri is another one. He had great head- and upperbody-movement often slipping punches by only a hair. Never talked about.