Simultaneously great offensive and defensive fighters.

Analysis included:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VldGL5Un7Ds[/ame]

 

In terms of blending, Duran, Napoles, Zarate, Charles perhaps. Robinson when he wasn't just overwhelming people with the offence.

Oh and of course Monzon

 

To be honest, most fighters do this to some extent, it's just the super athletes like Ali, Leonard, Jones etc. that sometimes lack it.

 

Tony Canzoneri. He is a pressure fighter who would make you lead and counter you afterwards. His biggest assets were his judge of distance and timing for both his offensive and defensive maneuvers. Due to these assets he could work on very small security margins defensivly and land vicious blows even at the higher weights he fought at and against bigger opponents. The fight where he shows off those abilities at it´s best is his three round knockout of Jackie Kid Berg. At times he would slip punches so narrowly that you´d think they landed and only can see that they didn´t when you pause the film at the right moment. At the same time they enabled him to hurt and finally knockout a bigger and very durable HoFer.
I say he was a sgreat defensivly as he was offensivly but looked better offensivly since his style was very risky and thus he got tagged quite often - without his great chin he never ever would have had the career he had.

 

Hagler

 

Well there's a distinction to be made between one one hand fighters who were both great offensively and great defensively and on the other hand fighters who were great at using both their offensive and defensive abilities together, whether or not those abilities were objectively great in and of themselves (though obviously nobody's going to be throwing crap journeymen into the mix). Since you mentioned the idea of "blending" and all that I presumed you were after the latter. And the former would make for a pretty boring thread since all manner of fighters would be included.

To follow up on what I was saying earlier someone like Leonard would probably be a good example of how that distinction is relevant - certainly he could defend very well/greatly when pressured, great reflexes, ability to pull away etc. - and he was certainly great offensively both in terms of raw attributes like speed and power and in terms of more skill-based stuff like picking shots, finishing and such. But in terms of actually combining the two by countering/avoiding counters, boxing off the back foot (rather than just alternating between running and punching which many confuse with that) he could somtimes be shown up a little (though admittedly only at the very top level - Duran, Hagler, Kalule etc.).

Zarate was always great at combining the two regardless of whether you want to diss them when in isolation. Brilliant at exploiting the slightest opening to start an exchange, a master at slipping punches and always knew where the gap was to come back. If only he had a better chin.

A lot of people seem to be in the habit of having a go at Robinson's defence of late, probably down to reading too much into his later scraps where he just fell back on punching the **** out of the other guy without worrying too much about what came the other way (which he could get away with). I'm sure you've watched this but it's probably worth another look

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcyqmnXNY-w[/ame]

 

I think Burley fits this description.

 

durans seriously underated defensively

 

sorry great at both yer wanted

 

Tyson.

 

Far from original picks...but Duran and Napoles amaze me with how they transition from both offense to defense.With Duran his footwork helped set up his shots...while Napoles was brilliant staying in range, then capitalizing on even the smallest openings.