Who Are The Best Defensive Infighters In Heavyweight History?

Terror · Aug 8, 2023

Qawi could bounce off your shot and throw something crazy back, he had a quality of your best punch just dinging off his armor.

kingfisher3 · Aug 8, 2023

jack johnson.

i saw this thread a few days ago and jack seemed too obvious. days later i can't think of anyone better.

i guess toney is the best other pick, but most of the reason to say that happened at lower weights.

BCS8 · Aug 8, 2023

I submit that Povetkin was the best recent exponent of this sort of inside fighting at heavyweight. He got right into the face of the other guy and combined an arsenal of hooks and uppercuts with head movement, waist bending, parries and protecting the body with his arm. He also does the EE thing of bouncing back when the other guy throws a shot. Check it out:

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J.edwards_ · Aug 9, 2023

Glass City Cobra said: ↑

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.
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The last bit hurts me but is sadly very true. I was watching Bowe-Holyfield 3 the other day and I couldn’t believe how impressive Holyfield’s first round of boxing and moving was. The footwork, jab, ring craft, countering, defense were just exceptional for a HW. I don’t think I’ve seen a more impressive ‘boxing’ round from a HW and that includes Ali and Holmes.

THE BLADE 2 · Aug 9, 2023

I would say James Toney, although he was not a great heavyweight

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