Lets not talk about Power anymore, But instead your personal top 5 defensive fighters

The Donaire outclassing was superb.

 

hw = jack johnson, was untouchable, used so little energy he could laugh at you all night long and tie you up inside and out
lhw = roy jones jr vs toney tie
mw = Hagler/Monzon tie. Nothing fancy here but I suspect their solid defences rather than jaws of stone allowed them to not get hurt.
ww= whitaker other guysa like duran and benetiez had great defense but never USED it often. Whitaker used it alot and he had to at 5'5
lw= Joe Gans

 

No Hopkins?? Or prime Jones Jr???

 

Jones was on my list, his speed was amazing, he isn't a defensive wizard in the way james toney was but he could move so fast that you gotta give him credit for it, I am not a roy jones fan, I way prefer a james toney defensive clinic where he uses angles to make a guy miss over a guy who simply just keeps moving and running but you gotta give credit where it is due.

 

Some dark horse candidates:

Jack Britton. The Boxing Marvel was floored on a few occasions, but went the distance in 309 bouts. Was not stopped in his final 342 matches out of 345 overall, finally retiring when pushing 45. At 5'8" with a 70 inch reach, he was no Tommy Hearns or Panama Al Brown in terms of stature for his weight.

Tommy Loughran. Did not look steel chinned against Lomski, Sharkey I or Hamas I. Gene Tunney also had him down. Avenged both defeats in which he was punched out by Hamas and Sharkey. Got the best of McTigue in March 1922, Godoy in January 1935, and Farr in January 1936 [but was robbed by the referee in a match even the fans in Royal Albert Hall protested for over 20 minutes, a match the British press gave to Loughran seven rounds to three].

Joe Gans. Five stoppage defeats in 186 bouts, all of them very well documented. Took Elbows McFadden 23 rounds to do him in for his first stoppage loss in 1899, the defining career win for Elbows. Erne made him wisely quit in the 12th round after a head butt, when the sight in Joe's eye was threatened. [The Old Master avenged that one as conclusively as possible in lifting Frank's LW Title.] The McGovern-Gans footage continues a debate to this day as to whether or not Joe took a dive against Terrible Terry. He was dying of consumption when Nelson nonetheless still needed 17 and then 21 rounds to take him out. Gans wasn't steel chinned. Tad Dorgan endowed him with his nickname for good reason.

Nat Fleischer called Jack Johnson the greatest defensive heavyweight he ever saw. Again, Lil' Artha' wasn't steel chinned, but between May 1901 and May 1926, only Willard stopped him in Havana, needing 26 rounds of scorching heat and humidity in which to rally for the title. That quarter century spanned 82 fights.

Burley. Everybody watching Charley's rematch against Billy Smith can see Charley just doesn't get hit from his Schmeling like positioning. We have footage of Charles, Moore and Marshall taking out other opponents. lots of significantly heavier ATGs just couldn't take Burley out.

 

A more interesting list would be a list of aggressive, offensive fighters who nonetheless had great defenses and were hard to hit.

It's obviously much easier to avoid getting hit when you are a runner.

 

Napoles and Qawi come to mind for me right away [Flash Gordon very favorably compared the Buzzsaw to Jose in that respect, and Napoles was dubbed Mantequilla for good reason]. Arguello early on was a slip and counter on the way in sort. Gene Tunney said he rarely got clean shots at the chin of a shot Dempsey. Vito Antuofermo was noted as a vastly underrated defensive fighter.

When Ali turned aggressor against the likes of Blue Lewis, Joe Bugner and Mac Foster, that didn't make him easier to hit. If he wasn't leaning back, he was easily ducking under, or canting his head to either side [as he did over the first five in Tokyo with Mac, an extremely dangerous counter puncher]. In their rematch, the trigger fisted Jerry Quarry got Muhammad coming forward, and got taken to the woodshed for his trouble.

Alberto Davila was not known as a hard puncher, but a solid technical boxer who generally marched forward continually. At 5'3" his crouch could make him a difficult target at 118. Discovered very early on that if his opponent made the first move, he could avoid getting hit.

Joe Louis is also typically considered an aggressive counter puncher. Check out his first knockdown of Charley Retzlaff. The deadly punching Retzlaff lunges at Joe with a hook. Louis recoils and catches Retzlaff coming in with a much shorter hook of his own, and that's essentially the ball game. Perhaps the definitive counterpunch of Joe's career.

 

the first two that came to my mind were Pep & Benitez.