Not as well as a lot of people make it sound like he could, and not as well as Armstrong could. Both Armstrong and Duran are offensive minded fighters. They are probbly top 5 in terms of defense for offensive boxers. However in the big picture I'd say they are top 25 level defensive boxers with Armstrong ratted higher than Duran.
I was talking to Ripcity dawg. It's so mainstream to use quotes when talking to the last person to post in a thread.
My bad, bro. For the record though i do know that Duran was excellent at all of this but im of the opinion that Armstrong was better at it
His punching and movement, they are more fluid and conservative. He moves into position where he wants to move, which gets them to move where he wants them, then he hits before they hit and a split second later he's back in his unhittable position. If they move out of range into comfort he breaks his rythym and throws a rapid, compact lunging jab. Whoever said he doesnt have a jab, he has a ****ing flying rythm breaking jab. He just looks like he knows exactly whats gunna happen before it happens, an intelligent chess playing fighter.
I wouldn't say he's conservative at all man, his balls-out perpetual motion throwing and bobbing constantly is pretty damn active. If you're saying his melding of offense and defense is a more effective I'll agree. I'll say, it is weird how he just looks at someone's feet, nothing but their feet and then applies the right defensive move somehow, mindboggling
Maybe conservative is the wrong word, i dont know. I'm not talking about the volume of punches he throws, i'm talking about the technique and little wasted action, or overdone movement. Am i making sense?:huh Im using big words to describe it and confusing myself. Im just trying to say that its direct, on target then back out again efficiently. This probably has alot to do with positioning also
Armstrong was hard to hit. There's no dispute there. I'll let the resident professors draw the conclusions on who was "technically better" and agree on use of terminology. For me, Armstrong was one of the greatest ever, pound-for-pound. Hard to hit : yes, he had to be. I rate him higher than Duran, who was great in his own right of course.