Top 5 defensive fighters since Pep

That's fair enough, thank you for schooling me on Jones, never knew he did any of that.

Virgil Hill was no longer champ. Ruiz was never champ. Johnson was at light heavy.

 

So was hill never champ, dude won a title at cruiseriweight waaay after the Jones lose, Hopkins and Toney are hall of famers, Ruiz held a belt he was a titlist and a true heavyweight...say what you want but not too many fighters in recent memory are gonna start out at 156 and defeat a mainstay at heavyweight...Ruiz wasnt a great fighter Just good but his resume is overlooked becuase of his style he beat Jameel McCliine, Andrew Golota, Hasim Rahman, Fres Oquendo and fought alot of top guys....Dude beat 18 world champions or titlists major belts, you'd be hard pressed to top that....dude was one of the best defensive fighters ever

 

Stick to the general.

 

watch more boxing:deal

 

Moi? Don't think so pal :hi:

BTW Jones is the best fighter I've ever seen. I'm just rolling with Sweet_Scientists line of thinking.

You have a Floyd avatar :-( Watch George Benton.

 

i have to bad floyd is a much better fighter atsch

 

Locche
Whitaker
Benitez
Kalambay
Mayweather Jr

 

Why not?

 

Surprising that this is the first mention he got.

 

As for eluding punches when staying in the line of fire and doing damage themselves, Duran, McCallum and Toney immediately springs to mind. Also Chavez, perhaps.

Tyson is not an outrageous pick, but I think a lot of his defensive succes had to do with his opponents being so scared of his offense that they didn't really let their hands go. Douglas did, and...

 

Well I suppose if you want to bring it down to 'technical defence' I'd agree with Jones but not Kalambay who I rate as a great defensive fighter

Still if defence = not being hit, Jones rates highly, his punching slipping and movement is obviously exceptional

 

That's true Flea, i agree with that..but in the recent Willie Pastrano tribute thread I started there was much criticism of Pastrano's style as being one that "wasted too much energy"..but Willie was able to move like that when he was in top shape, and I've observed that that same carping criticism has never been directed to the young Clay/Ali by the same people, I bet. There are dancing masters who were able to float all night long and make it look like an art form and there were those wannabes that like you say, carried it to an extreme.

 

I agree with this

 

I think there should only be stronger than usual criticism on fighters who use their legs a lot, if they were shown to be poor (or relatively disinterested)at making you miss while in range(and only then if it's in response to them being called great or complete defensive fighters).ie Someone like Sammy Serrano who was a great perimeter mover and defensive in the extreme at times, but just ordinary in range.Or for genuinely excellent fighters who would be on the cusp... ie Walter McGowan who was good in punching range, but not great and more devil may care than defensively responsible.

I would argue with someone calling him a great defensive fighter, but at the end of the day it's also arguable if emphasising range for defence is any worse or less effective than fighters who can't or won't move their feet in there and suffer just as much for it than fighters who don't stay in close for too long.

There's also another aspect of defensive stylists that doesn't get brought up too often.Those that emphasis it to such an extent that they are always looking for the punch coming at them at the expense of making such a thing tougher by simultaneously classically boxing\countering\leading at a solid workrate.Most of the fighters mentioned in this thread lapsed into it at some point during most fights or maybe even in a full notable fight or two, often for reasons of sheer ego imo, but Locche especially took it to the ridiculous extreme.He was great at it, it's great fun to watch and it was his thing, but it's something arguably just as worthy of criticism as any failings of range and technique.

Much easier to play defence and string together erection inducing gratuitous sequences of defence if you are keeping the offensive pure boxing as a purely secondary concern for rounds on end.Similar to how it's less difficult to be a granite chinned type if you are just shuffling forward without taking too much risks, seeing all the punches coming, than someone with a risk taking style that gets hit with punches they don't see as much and aren't necessarily in the same legs planted, mentally braced position all the time.

 

People seem to also be forgetting a prime Camacho ...