Which Joe had the better defence? Joe Louis or Joe Frazier? This content is protected This content is protected IMO it's Louis. Frazier had better head & upper-body movement as well as better footwork, but Louis had more varied methods of defending himself, such as: blocking, parrying, ducking, slight head movement, subtle footwork. Frazier generally only had one way of defence; up & down bobbing & weaving. He also used a slight cross-arm defence, but he couldn't defend himself well going backwards, where Louis could defend himself going forwards & backwards.
I voted even. Whilst the first, and always the most pressing, thought of both, was "how can I get into position to hit him", with avoiding being hit a secondary, but nevertheless still material, consideration, they both had good to very good, albeit different (Fraziers head movement was better, Louis's defence was multil faceted, harnessing some head movement, allied with distance control, blocking and parrying) defences for boxers with that singular mindset.
