Rate These Defensive Prodigies... Pep, Pea, Locche, Benitez, PBF

Yes.

At least I argued why. Loche opposition was questionable in general. Absolute majority of his fights were in Argentina and still he has plenty of draws. If he was that good why he didn't fight Ortiz in USA or Puerto-Rico?

 

You would have to look at the opposition each of these fighters had. To dispaly defense against a mediocre or really good fighter is one thing, to display defenseive genius while engaging the offensive greats of the game. That while at the same time engaging in some offense well thats the true measure.

Who among these defensive greats ever fought a guy like Tommy Hearns in their prime or a Roberto Duran? two great Offensive fighters....

Pep had Saddler who is comparable to a Hearns and guys like Chalky Wright so I say he steps out of the Pack. Benitez had a prime Hearns and a close to prime Duran and Cervantes when Benitez was 17

Hearns at 147 would KO PBF and Sweet Pea.
These two could go 15 with Hearns provided they display little offense and lose lopsided decisons in my opinion

Locche well he fought Cervantes and Ortiz, laguna, Brown. But he was all defense everything about him was off the defense and he had over 114 wins with only 4 losses and had only 14 Ko's, so he was all Defense.

here's how I see it based on that

1. Benitez
2. Pep
3. Locche
4. sweet Pea
4 PBF

Im tempted to put Locche 1st cause everything he did was off his defense and the guy was untouchable you dont go 115 fights never getting stopped and fighting the quality guys he did with ony 14 KO's without having incredible defense. Heck the guys nickname in Spanish is the untouchable.

Pep Fought at a time when there was only 8 weight classes so he could also be #1 he also fought hundreds of fights.

But Benitez against Hearns and Duran, probably because I saw these, prejudices my view. But my top 3 can be swapped and I would need to study it further to be truly conclusive but for now those are my picks.

 

Pep was so good. Check out his fights.

 

WBWA. Pretty good quality.

Maybe, but I can't get'em. I think most of his hometown fights weren't recorded.

 

Pernell is on a different level to floyd defensively. In fact, Pernell is on a different planet to anybody else ever when it comes to defensive boxing. Watching him duck a flurry of punches is beautiful to watch. He did it time and time again, against elite competition.

 

Ali deserves a mention, but he isn't in the same league defensively as pep, benitez, or whitaker. Still, people here are mentioning Frazier. That is ridiclious.

 

1. Nicolino Loche
2. Pernell Whittaker
3. Wilfred Benitez
4. Willie Pep (his fights in his prime are hard to find I have one but the quality is poor if i had more of his prime stuff he would probably be higher.)
5. Floyd Mayweather