Who were some of the greatest Defensive Boxers/Fighters

and then says "the greatest".
come on, can you really say ottke's name in the same breath as sweet pea and floyd?

 

Beat me to it but Toney was amazing defensively. That’s why he was able to continue fighting until he was old and fat. That and the steroids he was taking. Still, an amazing defensive fighter. If he had discipline, he could have been the greatest MW, possibly of all time. He ate his way up the weight classes and never achieved the greatness he should have achieved. Interesting fighter.

 

Yes James Toney is my favorite fighters of all time. What he was able to do reminds me of legendary fighters like Sam Langford, Mickey Walker, Joe Walcott(barbados)....Pacquiao is up there too. I don't think there will ever be an 8 Division champion. Especially one that was absolutely destroying guys all the way upto 154(Margarito), despite turning pro at 108lbs.

 

willie pep, mayweather and sweet pea r are the obv mentions. agree on toney.

Roy Jones Jr, Mike Tyson early in his career, Chris Byrd all had exceptional defense imo

edit: Also Bhop

 

Chris Byrd had an interesting style. Held back some pretty solid punchers.

 

Wlad. Not always pretty, but he took very little punishment in a decade of title fights.

 

Margarito and Gatti should be up there.

 

Canto
Locche
Benitez
Pep
Midget Wolgast
Lora
Zapata
Whitaker
Payakaroon


There might be some more I haven't thought of but when I think of the sport's great elite, far-out, naturally instinctive defensive talents who had a range of fundamentally strong technical underpinnings to go with their quirks and deviations, the above guys stick out. Mayweather is close to them but a bit more minimalistic in his approach and not as defensively expansive imo, just very well-schooled and intelligent on top of being quick. Closer to the likes of Jones Jr, Kalambay, Benton, Billy Graham, Starling, Toney, Hopkins, Pedroza, Famechon etc than Locche, Pep or Whitaker.

Duran and to a lesser extent Archie Moore and Napoles were great defensive fighters for how aggressive they were, less concerned with avoiding being hit than the defensive specialists. The same for Chavez, Ernesto Marcel, Ismael Laguna etc. Lomachenko falls more into this category than the great defensive elite I think. Brilliant footwork, angle creation, a high guard, good punch slipping ability, fronts etc but not really a counterpuncher or comfortable punching on the move, retreat or inside, tending more to disengage and reset to try and aggressively beat opponents to the punch. Hittable to the body too and not altogether comfortable against skilled downstairs attacks from what I've seen.

Crawford is defensively smart, quite clever and old school. Reminds me of a smaller version of McCallum. Chocolatito Gonzalez brilliant at weaving his attacks and defence together from minimum weight to fly.

 

Willie Pep
Maxie Rosenbloom
Nicolino Locche
Pernell Withaker