Rank these fighters' defensive abilities: Louis, Marciano, Frazier, Fury

Fury>Louis>Marciano>Frazier

 

I’m not putting Fury at the top of this list yet. He was dropped twice by Wolder who is very crude, Cunningham also put him down and one other guy early in his career. Yes he outboxed Wilder, badly, but Ortiz was outboxing him before he gassed and even the limited Washington was for 5 rounds. To put it mildly it’s not hard to outbox Wilder for long stretches.
All 4 men were smart and played to their strengths. The make up of a good fighter.

 

Fury
Louis




Marciano/Frazier

 

This. Fury was a complete sucker for letting Wilder land that right hand on him in the 12th round. Fury most likely would've edged the fight on the official scorecards if he wouldn't have gotten sloppy in the 12th round.

 

Marciano - Marciano fought a lot of crafty and experienced fighters, but Marciano's greatest strength was that he always listened to Goldman's instructions. Marciano would get caught, but would always make the necessary adjustments in order to win and his conditioning never once failed him in the ring.

Louis - As great a fighter as Louis was he wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed and Louis definitely was a complete sucker for getting dropped by Galento. Before the fight Louis was instructed not to trade left hooks with Galento, but did so anyway and got floored for his trouble. Louis earlier in his career also didn't take Schmeling seriously despite Blackburn warning him how dangerous Schmeling was and the result was him getting stopped.

Frazier - Frazier was a complete sucker for underestimating Foreman and showing up so grossly overweight. After 1971 Frazier was simply coasting and his performances proved it. Going into the Foreman fight Frazier admitted he didn't bother to watch footage on Foreman and also cut his roadwork in half, since it was going to be a short fight (Joe was right).

Fury - Going into the fight I was a little skeptical of Davison as a lead trainer due to his age, but all of his instructions throughout the fight to Fury on point. Right before sending Fury out Davison gave Fury explicit instructions on how to finish the fight, which was for Fury to use lateral movement and to not stand in front of Wilder. Fury being an idiot went out and was staying right in front of Wilder, who was a serious as a heart attack and desperate to land his is right hand, which he did.

 

Fury is probably the best of the group because of his length and the way he uses his very long legs.

For the other three, their best defense was a good offense.

 

Two swarmers, a stalker and a tall boxer. By their nature it should be Fury. Frazier was actually quite adept defensively taking into account his style and the fact that he was a Heavyweight swarmer. He much preferred to back his own offense over his opponents but didn't make himself a punching bag when doing so. He got hit quite a lot against Ali, well Ali's the GOAT. Foreman was a styles thang and Foreman is an ATG as well.

 

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I'm not sure why you'd compare the defense of 3 offensive fighters with a defensive one. Obviously Fury has the best.

Better comparison would be Fury with Corbet, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Ali

 

If he hadn't been kd down at all he would still have lost on one judges card!

 

Louis
Fury
Frazier
Marciano

Luis first as we saw he learnt and adapted from his defence frailties, his defence was often more offensive as for most at the higher weights at the time but he was very slick at catching, slipping, feinting and countering.

Fury could be too but he has lapsed if if centration and from his biggest fights he has been dropped twice by Wilder, dropped by Cunningham, buzzed of Wlad, dropped by Pajkic and beaten if McDermott, he's also managed to buzz himself by punching himself in the face. Don't get me wrong though, he is quality when he's on his game but I can't out him too for all those reasons.

Frazier was great in certain fights but he was butchered in the Formans fights and often took more punches than necessary in many others. What he could do was slip under fighters very effectively but his mentality was to press forward and take one to give one if need be.

Marciano was just a hard *******, he didn't have a lot of defences I've nous at all but he was extremely aggressive and was able to overwhelm fighters and that acted as a defensive detergent at times. He was caught by all Walcott, Charles and Moore all.had him down, hurt or injured and he was often hit by people below his level like Applegate and Digiorgio though I ain't seen those fights. That's not a shill on Rocky, his strengths lay in his offence and he used them to the best he possibly could and that was always enough for him.

 

Even so Fury would’ve left Staples Center with the WBC belt, since Phil Edwards would’ve had Fury winning if not for the last knockdown. Davison looked pissed that Fury went out there in the 12th and completely ignored his instructions. I have to say out of the top three guys at heavyweight right now Joshua seems to follow instructions better than either Wilder or Fury.