Rate these defenses in order from best to worst

1. Pernell Whitaker
2. Willie Pep
3. Bernard Hopkins
4. Wilfred Benitez
5. Floyd Mayweather
6. James Toney
7. Nicolino Locche
8. Winky Wright

 

benitez
calderon
whitaker
will pep
wright
bhop
SRL
PBF
ALI
Toney

 

Toney's defence was greater than Floyd's at his best, as was Locche's. Duran, Tyson and other swarmers who at their best made guys miss like crazy deserve to have style taken into consideration, I rate both of their defenses over Floyd's.

Get Floyd in with the opposition level that some of these guys fought and he'll get hit more. If you need evidence, please review how much Castillo landed on him.

 

This is tough as ****, but I'm going to take a crack at it.

1. Willie Pep
2. Pernell Whitaker
3. Winky Wright
4. Toney
5. Duran
6. Leonard
7. Benitez
8. Hopkins
9. Mayweather
10. Jones

Alot of guys like Locche, napoles, and a few others I havent seen much of. Not sure if you want us to rank them over a career or in ther primes, so I just kinda picked somewhere in the middle.

 

Tough one here Brooklyn, but here's a list of 10 that I came up with quickly (excluding guys I haven't seen fight)

1) Whitaker
2) Pep
3) Benitez
4) BHop
5) Duran
6) Toney
7) Mayweather
8) Winky
9) Calderon
10) Ali

What does your list look like?

 

Ro Jones JR is a ****ing excellent defensive fighter. People so often forget, because his offense was so amazing. I would place him defensively above most in that list without question. When did you ever see a fighter land on prime Roy consistently??

 

Hopkins = Excellent
Leonard = Good
Guzman = Average
Duran = Average/Good
Whitaker= Superb (best IMO)
Benitez= Excellent
Toney= Good
Wright = Good/Excellent
Tyson= Average/Good
Ali- Good
Pep= Excellent/Superb
Jones Jr- Excellent/Superb
Calderon= Good/Excellent
Mayweather Jr = Excellent
Qawi- Average

 

Any guys in that list who have gotten into toe 2 toe wars I have real trouble rating as top defensive fighters. Because they simply get hit far too often. People here are under rating Floyd IMO, the guy is a phenomanel defensive fighter. Watch him vs Corrales, vs Ndou, vs Chavez etc etc.... Most of his career has been based around effective defense. Not many fighters you can say that about. He is certainly a better defensive fighter then SRL and Duran, regardless of what people here will surely cry about... Where those guys were superior fighters to Floyd is in their offensive capabilities. If Floyd could throw effectively in combination, the guy would be almost unstoppable.

Throwing out one particular fight were he got tagged more then usual, does nothing to indicate his defensive weaknesses. I could do that to pretty much every fighter on that list, often times much more then once....

 

I'm not sure about the entire list and I haven't seen enough of Pep/Locche, but I agree with MSTR about Jones and would put him at #2 after Whitaker, then Benitez at #3. Roy's defense was very unorthodox, but during his prime when his reflexes were unreal, his defense was one of the best and most effective of all time. It was nearly flawless, he saw every punch coming so well and never got hit flush. His movement was incredibly smart and he tied fighters up when he needed to. After these three, there are a lot of close ones that I can't decide on. I wouldn't put Ali's defense in the top 10 of all time. Like Roy, he relied on his natural talent to get away from punches he saw coming in an unorthodox way, but I think Roy had better reflexes and an overall better, much less leaky defense.

When comparing defenses of different fighters, does a chin factor into it as well?

 

I almost had a problem putting him at #10 on my list, but lets keep in mind that he was a heavyweight. And for a heavyweight he is unparalleled in movement and angles which is why I slipped him onto my list

 

Imagine if Floyd was up against an elite pressure fighter and was forced to throw more punches and take more risks in order to win a fight.. he would be taking a lot of punches. His defense is great, but he's extremely safety first and his punch output isn't great at all. Unlike the other boxers on the list, he's never had to deal with an elite, relentless offensive fighter.

 

Exhibit A: Mayweather vs Castillo I

 

I agree that if he threw more punches, his defense would probably suffer. However, the fact that he has dominated so many fights with such low punch output is a testament to his outstanding defence. Even against the likes of Oscar, who is still a bigger, semi-elite level pressure fighter who threw punches in fast combinations, Floyd was rarely hit cleanly.