Rate Smokin Joe's Defence

7 at best. In his own book he described it as being a weakness, he had to take shots to get his in. Compelling to watch, exciting and brutal, but his defence was a dream for really big hitters - George Foreman being a perfect example.

 

7.5

Weakness to uppercuts made his demise against Foreman even easier.

Really good at slipping jabs and rights, his cross arm guard was good for hooks as well.

 

He could make guys miss pretty well on the inside, while countering with explosive hooks. He had all the dipping, shifting, and bobbing moves that heavyweights of today have zero of. I'd give him like an 8 to 8.5, considering his style of staying in your chest, enticing you to throw and miss while he nails you with shots of his own.

 

Well Rocky Marciano was pretty damn good too. Rocky's another one who has moves that really nobody in the cruiserweight or heavyweight division today even tries (except Chisora, he tries to emulate Frazier). Not to mention Marciano's and Frazier's never-ending endurance and determination

 

:thumbsup

:deal

 

Hmm..

I recall my 7.5 and give 8.

 

For an undersized come-forward pressure fighter, it was OK, I guess. Frazier definitely did not have the slickness of a Qawi, for example. The main problem though, in my opinion, was that Frazier didn't have great explosive foot speed, and instead of quickly darting inside and going to work, he would kind of plod along and bounce around too much.

 

Geese guys, 7 and 8, I don't know. Quarry reached him often in their first go, more then he did anyone else of note and Bonavena thumped in quite a few, Ellis said Joe was not hard to hit after fighting him twice. Joe tried hard to avoid punches but many still hit home, I think a 6 is being fair here.

 

7ish

 

Ellis did **** really. The others are fair, though.

 

I'd call it a 7.

It did what it needed to do. Joe wasn't the fastest guy, didn't have the best feet. That means he needed to walk through fire to get his. Only the world class abouts managed to connect with any sort of regularity.

That is the definition of a good defense. To get higher, from me, it has to translate to the higher levels of competition, which Joe's even managed to do, to a degree. So, 7.

 

Muhammad Ali and Foster missed an awful lot in their fights with Frazier. His head movement was very impressive. I'd say a 7.

 

I'd say about 7-8. He was an in-fighter and in-fighters need to take some damage to deal some damage. They rely on their conditioning to win fights. That being said, his bobbing and weaving were amazing. I'd say the only swarmer with better defense is Mike Tyson. I think the peek-a-boo is better than the cross arm defense.

 

If you watch him in his first bout with Ali he made the greatest miss many punches. Thats the good news.....on the other side of the coin Frazier could not change up, alter his style and tempo to make him a more elusive target. He could make you miss but he could be easily timed. Id give him a 6.