Morphed a Twitter thread I made & posted yesterday into a little bootleg video. I know I left numerous names off for time & lack of footage, most notably Qawi, Finito Lopez, etc. Name some more of the more underrated defensive fighters in boxing history. This content is protected
Jose Napoles should definitely be included. Not as flashy as the big names like Locche, Pep, Whitaker, Benitez and Mayweather, but I don't have anyone in mind who was clearly better defensively than him after them. He was definitely less hittable than someone like Robinson. It was uncanny at times. There was a moment somewhere in Cokes 1 (sadly I don't remember where exactly) where he was in punching range and managed to hit Cokes, then as Cokes tried to retaliate with a few straight punches, Napoles made him miss without even taking a step back or performing any defensive maneuver. It was chilling. Napoles just understood distance, timing and positioning. He would take half steps literally all the time so that he could go backwards in a moment's notice without stagnating when an opponent went on the offensive. It also helped that you could count fighters that were better combination punchers than him in only one hand. The phrase ''a good attack is the best defence'' is probably more true in Boxing than most endeavors. A correctly executed punch should move your head off line when performed correctly. Greynotsoold has often preached how the motion of punching and slipping is the same. This is why. And Napoles could chain accurately thrown punches better than anyone not named Joe Louis or Sugar Ray. He would often change levels and throw from different angles as well, being able to hit from positions where the other guy could not hit him. If Willie Pep's motto was ''he who hits and runs away leaves to fight another day'', then Napoles' was ''He who hits while being away, leaves his opponents in dismay".
I feel like you don’t hear Winky Wright mentioned enough for this, but he was pretty superb, although not always exciting. Glad to see you included him! Mosley was my favorite fighter at the time (and is among my favorites of all time) so I wasn’t big on Winky back in the day!