I always thought Johnny Tapia got hit a lot. He had really nice slip followed by a left rip and would lean out to avoid punches and really used the whole ring to fight. Yet he got countered a lot and would dip his head on the inside to get rests and take unneeded shots. The hits never seemed to affect Johnny he was so tough and so talented but they are offense for the opponent.
He absolutely did. Arguello's finishes were often so dominant that people forget how these fights played out. Arguello bombed guys out with skill but they weren't clean shut outs and he was a obvious slow starter who took a while to warm up and his opponents would often win some early rounds. Arguello was so composed that these clipping shots as he tried moving out of the pocket or scuffing blows to the body didn't seem to have a huge impact on him. Alexis stood up straight on the inside due to his height and could be hit. He wasn't big on clinching and would opt to push opponents off him as tried to bully him on the inside. It was there he got hit with a lot of blows. Arguello loved that straight right and wanted his opponents to open up offensively to allow him more chances at that counter shot. Pryor landed the left hand and straight right to Alexis's body so many times in both their fights. Vs Escalera in which Alexis bombed and brutalized him, in between that there was a lot of scuffing and odd shot offense from Alfredo.
Gonna catch some flak for this one I'm sure, but whatever. Ray Robinson. He was all offense, quite frankly. His offense was nothing short of superlative of course, speed, accuracy, precision, great power, everything thrown in combination. Those punches, and the threat of those punches, often kept many away, and his feet did the rest if he had to cut things short, which was rare. Most of the time it was Ray ending exchanges. To boil it down, his offense was his defense, as the saying goes. He's known as such a fluid boxer, so blessed in so many areas, the picture-perfect this and that so it seems counterintuitive and wrong somehow to suggest that he was anything short of perfect. Truth is, he was not that difficult to hit. Maybe because he knew he had other tools to combat that so it didn't matter.
I loved Tigers pace. He always let them have an easy fight as long as he was winning he would just jab work a little and walk them down he was cool and methodical. But the second they pushed him out of his comfort zone or pressed the issue of winning he just mauled them.
Although i dont consider Danny Lopez a great fighter some might do but for a top fighter he probably had the worst defense ive seen he didnt even attempt to duck or dodge punches he might had blocked some but for the most time he blocked them with his face. Loved him nonetheless.
That's not true tho. Tyson did hit Holyfield quite a few times in the two fights ie Round one, Round 5-6 and Round 3 of the rematch. Credit to Holyfields chin and resilience