Heaviest Handed Defensive Fighters

Graham not a lot of snap in his punches, and seemed arm punches, but could mark/swell guys up

 

Sheeeeet! Juan Manuel Marquez was about as good as it gets. Absolutely devastating counterpuncher that was solid defensively. Archie Moore also comes to mind but then again, he attached a lot were Marquez was mostly countering.

 

George Benton was a pretty hard puncher.
James Toney also deserves a mention.

 

Would not classify JMM as a defensive fighter at all, he was purely an offensive fighter that relied on being an aggressive counter puncher. Defensively speaking he got hit quite a bit and that always resulted him knocked on the canvas. His toughness, tenacity, and heart is what prevented him from being stopped.

 

Wlad.

he went from an offensive force to a very defensive fighter but never lost his wrecking ball punch.

 

Roy Jones and James Toney.

 

Do you not consider a counterpuncher a defensive fighter? Think about how many of his KO'S came off of counterpunches. The thread his about heavy-handed defensive fighters.

 

Spoon ??

 

Another guy that comes to mind as a great defensive fighter that could crack is Antonio Tarver. He was hard to hit clean and could take your head off with his left hand.

 

I'm sure "Flo" will answer for himself, but I agree with him so will add my 2 cents.
I always saw Juan Manuel Marquez as primarly offensive fighter, so his approach wasn't defensive - and in terms of efficiency, He also wasn't overly hard to touch, so I don't think He fits the "defensive fighter" bill.

Quite a few guys like that coming out of Ingle gym... Johnny Nelson and Junior Witter were also heavy handed fighers with defence-first approach.

 

A defensive fighter is just that: a defensive minded fighter, which is something JMM was not. You don’t need to be a defensive fighter to be a counter puncher, countering is just part of a fighters style. Guys like Nonito Donaire and Evander Holyfield are counterpunchers but they’re not known for their defensive skills.

 

Exactly this, thank you for clearing that up. JMM isn’t a fighter that relied on defense, he was the kind of fighter that fired back furiously with hard counters and combinations when he found openings. He was willing to take a few punches to land his own. That is a more offensive minded approach.

 

Re-read my original post. I never claimed that he relied on defense. I said he was a heavy handed counterpuncher. Counter punching starts with defense. I don't think there is such a thing as a fighter that strictly relied on defense. Not going to win many fights if you don't punch back.

 

I’m confused. In your first post you mentioned JMM in a thread that’s supposed to be about “heavy handed defensive fighter”. He didn’t fit that criteria because he was clearly not a defensive fighter. And now you’re saying that he didn’t rely on defense when this thread was clearly talking about defensive fighters.

Being a counterpuncher doesn’t mean you’re a defensive fighter. Countering starts with feinting, baiting an opponent, and taking advantage of a fighter’s mistakes when they leave themselves open. Being defensive is mainly a style that relies on not getting hit a lot.

 

Not trying to be confrontational but counterpunching starts with defense and Marquez was a brilliant counter puncher that hit extremely hard which is what this thread is about or how I took it. Did he get hit? Absolutely. It's boxing. Most of his KO'S came off of counterpunches.

You mentioned James Toney and George Benton who I agree were great heavy handed defensive fighters. I would argue both got hit every bit as much as Marquez. Especially Toney.