Hopkins or Duran, who was "pound for pound" better defensively?

Duran was quite a bit better in my opinion

 

YEah, Duran.For headmovement in range and getting into defensive positions inside he's as good as anyone ever.

We've also seen his defensive skill tested against far superior range of fighters.Hopkins hasn'r fought nearly as many educated boxer-punchers or fighters with great left-hand work\straight punching arsenals that can really test a defence.

I think Hopkins main strength other than being very well-schooled, is that he rarely takes any needless risks when he's in boxer mode or makes many mistakes because of it.

 

Duran was so subtle he is a defensive genius with his subtle movements. Hopkins is just crafty as hell so its tough to decide but i go with Duran

 

Duran was an excellent defensive fighter. And under-rated defensively by many, he would parry the jab well when moving inside, roll punches well, slip them and adopt good head movement making him hard to hit, and the thing is when he slipped them he did it so effectively that he instantly found great angles to counter.

 

Well obviously from a defensively minded standpoint Hopkins is the answer, but with Duran's attacking style combined with the caliber of opposition such defense was tested against, i maybe say Duran.

For the record Hopkins is maybe the greatest defensive middleweight of all-time, it is arguable, even in this forum!

 

good shout Tito, hopkins is great defensivly i cant think of a beter MW defensivly

 

People will bring up the likes of Holman Williams, Michael Nunn and Sumbu Kalambay, i like Hopkins though

 

I think it's close, but hard to call for the following reasons:

-Hopkins' opposition in general is of lower quality / size (relative) than Duran's
-Duran in general was the aggressor, while Hopkins was more of a boxer

 

And a high level of technical proficiency

 

Nunn was no great defensive fighter, though he had the potential to be i suppose.He actually often just let fighters take free shots at him.

 

Yeah you are defo right, i was just fending that one off before people started to bring up his high skill level in terms of his defense

 

Though he didn't fight at the weight long do you fell jones should be included in that list,not exactly a textbook defence but his reflxes and speed made im hard as hell to hit clean

 

Well the reflexes you brought up will always have him in with a shout in a h2h sense when talking about his defensive abilities. But there are too many things to take we can use to take away from him here imo so not for me. But he was largely untested at the weight bar maybe the one fight so i can't really say no either i suppose