I don't think you'll get many contradicting your pick for mumber one. What if you had to choose two other fighters to put together a top 3?
James Toney. He is not an all time great heavyweight, but he is an all time great fighting now fighting at heavyweight. Toney, a former middleweight champion, has proven his defensive infighting ability against 3 former title holders and a top contender.
Among heavyweights, Dempsey springs to mind right away. Willard was not able to salvage his title with his deadly uppercut, and Tunney reported only getting three or four clear shots at Jack in 20 rounds of boxing. Vito Antuofermo was a vastly underrated defensive fighter, subtly moving his head to take away the impact of most of his opponent's blows. (Footage of Vito has to be watched very carefully to discern this. Internet services do not yet offer the visual clarity required to observe him slipping punches.) Antuofermo's major defensive weakness was failing to protect against head butts. However, he rarely got punched flush. Because of his style, the battered appearance of his face (something many boxers are born with), and the frequency with which he bled from cuts, his ability to minimize the effects of his opponent's punches has been overlooked. (It shouldn't be surprising that unphotogenic kids get into boxing. The old saying, "Never get in a fight with an ugly person, he has nothing to lose!" frequently translates into fighting being a path of least resistance.) Marlon Starling really gave away his first match to Don Curry, but in that bout, the Magic Man repeatedly secured a wonderfully protected position on the inside. Gil Clancy kept pointing out the obvious success Starling had at doing this, yet Marlon wouldn't punch away when he afforded himself the opportunity. (If Starling had only let fly with his fists, he would have taken a lopsided decision in that first meeting. For some unknown reason, he never pulled the trigger, and lost a split points verdict. Perhaps he was reluctant to attack because of the tragic death of Charles Newell, after Marlon's sixth pro bout against him.) In his career, Magic Man Starling was never kayoed, and I can't find a record of him ever being officially knocked down. The matches Benitez had with Palomino, Chiaverini, and Duran were essentially won on the inside. Archie Moore's cross armed defense was effective at picking off uppercuts, a core skill of defensive infighting. Jack Johnson actually was able to block Fireman Flynn's attempts to headbutt him. It's a tricky question to try answering, because most infighters utilize offense as their defense. While I haven't studied footage of DeJesus, I've read indications that Esteban defended himself well on the inside.
Jack Dempsey and Rock Marciano, they moved their weight properly I think. Someone Frazier just leaned forward from his waist, it’s probably also why he threw his left hook off the left foot too - they came from eras where everyone knew more about inside fighting and Frazier was in one with none.
OK, I think that we have to clarify what a great defensive fighter is. Men like Dempsey and Tyson were offensive fighters, with very good defense. That doesn't put them in the argument of the great defensive fighters. A Great defensive fighter, is not a man who takes a lot of risks in order to land hits, with a high degree of success.
That's what it means to you. To me a good defensive fighter is a fighter who sucessfully evades punches and takes less punishment. I find a come forward fighter who does this more impressive than a cautious fighter or back foot fighter because they consistently put themselves in the line of fire and still accomplish this.
an inside fighter might come forward and take risks and eat some shots getting inside, but once inside exhibit great defense, Frazier was amazing at this I remember seeing him check body shots with perfect timing, and he arguably hurt Ali more than Foreman did Marciano probably ate less shots getting inside, but brawled more and was less technical inside, mostly using his unorthodox style to avoid getting hit, Walcott certainly caught him though Frazier just didn't care he was going to get inside no matter what, Marciano was more stalking and careful
Hands down George's second career... Lmao no pun intended! Hands up in this case because not only did forman have the best inside defense he also was one of the best inside offensive fighters as demonstrated with that thundering close in right that put Moorer in bye bye land
For his era, Jack Johnson had great defense. It wasn't that he was impossible to hit, he was incredibly frustrating to fight. Clinching, wrestling, pinching the opponent's bicep, leaning to one side while holding up close rendering it impossible to land with any real power, subtle head movement, swaying, shuffling footwork to make punches miss by inches, parrying and swatting blows, pushing the opponent back, etc. He had all kinds of tricks (both legal and illegal) to avoid taking too much punishment. The most remarkable thing was his ability to conserve his energy and drag his opponent into deep waters before slowly turning up the heat. He could be brilliant on defense, even if it did sometimes look very ugly. I don't say for his era to demean him, it's just that some of his tactics were partly due to the smaller glove size allowing for more hands on defense and wrestling that he simply would not be able to pull off in more modern eras with tight hand wraps and big gloves. It would be interesting to see what he could come up with if he were put in a time machine. In modern times (the last 40 years or so) inside fighting is a critically endangered species that nobody is protecting. Outside of Holyfield, I don't think I've seen anyone display any "great" defense on the inside for several decades at HW. You can maybe count James Toney and Byrd, but they honestly weren't real heavyweights and brought their defensive skills up from lower divisions. For Holyfield, what stood out is that he had very high ring awareness and paid attention to what his opponent was doing. He would position himself in such a way as to be ready to counter and fire back, then put himself in a defensive position to smother the opponent's punches/block/etc. Like Jack Johnson, he was also a great wrestler with a gritty but effective style. Holyfield could roll with punches, had a good traditional guard, and in his prime had decent legs to move around and evade big bombs. The trouble with Holyfield was he had such a bad habit of brawling when hurt, even when the opponent was clearly bigger and stronger (Bowe being the most devastating example, although sometimes it worked such as against Cooper). If Holyfield had kept his speed and became a defense oriented fighter, the sky would've been the limit and he'd lose very few decisions.
