Greatest Defensive Boxer? (Excluding Whitaker and Mayweather)

Hard comparing era's of course.

Willie Pep

 

Maybe even the best ever.

 

From the top of my head...

Locche
Ricardo Mayorga
Willie Pep
Wilfred Benitez
1970s Foreman
Jake LaMotta

 

peter buckley
300 fights
260 losses approx
250 plus on points

fought a whos who of uk prospects and unbeaten fighters on a few days notice and across about 7 weights

old school cross armed defense / granite chin
even stoppage loseses like against prime hamed twice and colin mcmillan were bogus he was never hurt or even staggered just ref ending fights prematuerly

imagine a fighter losing 260 fights and being so good defensivly that even susperstars like hamed could not put a dent in his defense .

looked like ordinary skinny bloke in the street and not your toiugh hard as nails boxer

 

Loma`s active guard is very effective for a come forward fighter he doesn`t get hit a lot, and that`s because his angles and footwork, his balance is great also, but for pure slipping and reflexes Locche was amazing, a lot of Loma`s defense is his offence, because his constant jab keeps opponents off-guard, he`s got such an active guard, Benitez was the next down the list I feel for being able to slip combo`s he had amazing reflexes, so sad to see him now.

 

Who says Floyd is the consensus 2nd best defensive fighter ever? That's usually a statement put forth by casuals who have never been exposed to anything else.

At their peaks, I would say that Pep, Whitaker, Benitez, and Locche were all more elusive than Floyd. Miguel Canto was also a defensive wiz who deserves mention.

Sumbu Kalambay in his prime was one of the best defensive fighters ever as well.

 

Saunders

 

Roberto Duran, Julio Caesar Chavez, Tyson, Vassily Lomachenko.
It’s easier to pot shots your way to a decision, but few encompass defence and offense plus pushing a stoppage.
I think the fighters above offense are that good that their defence get overlooked.

 

Give me the underdog

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James Toney maybe

 

Dwight Braxton

 

Always find some of the comments in these threads odd when it reappears every so often. People speaking with such authority on how Willie Pep is far superior to Mayweather when they've seen the equivalent of one round worth of total footage of him in action, ever.

As ever it is difficult to compare eras. SRL was a great defensive fighter, when he chose to be. Loma is perhaps unique in his defensive abilities. B-Hop, Ward, Toney, Calzaghe all effective defensively, all different in how they approach it.

 

Alexander Ustinov or Mariusz Wach

 

Willie Pep is the greatest defensive fighter ever.