Most skilled defensive boxers

[IronDanHamza]

How about Happy Lora?

He was very good defensively.

[billeau2]

Some fighters are good defensively. Some fighters can avoid getting hit they are so good...and then at the top of the pyrmid are guys who can use their defense to actually create an offense. SO in my sometimes ignorant opinion the best guys defensively fall into two catogories:

Sweet Pea, Ali, Pep. (some others mentioned as well

and the great counter punchers.

Sweet Pea and his ilk could frustrate and tire out the competition.

Now a real counter puncher is defensive in so far as he delivers the blow as a defensive counter while the punches are coming.... For example, James Toney is a defensive wizard, vis a vis his ability to launch his right into the attack of someone like Rahman. Another example is Jack Johnson who often was fast enough to attack the attack of the guy while the guy was throwing his attack. Floyd Mayweather is another! Mayweather does it many times...his genius is how he times his attack so that it catches the guy midpunch and lets not forget Marquez.

The distinction I make is when a guy is the real deal he does not have to wait until the attack stops to launch his attack, he uses timing and position to hit the guy mid attack.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

A prime Hector Camacho could make that list.

I don't know if many of you remember Mike "The Bounty" Hunter. He was a lot like Chris Byrd as far as being hard to hit.

Rosario was able to tattoo a prime camacho, so im going to have to disagree on the bold

[IronDanHamza]

the best i've ever seen is floyd mayweather. flame on. i do not care. nobody has better defense.


all you can criticize is the level of competition.

He certainly is one of the best ever.

Hard to deny that.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

He certainly is one of the best ever.

Hard to deny that.

I wont say he is not a great defender, probably the best of his era, but i have a tough time putting him on the whittaker, pep type level....

just look at pernell vs chavez or oscar and look at floyd vs oscar and cotto,,,

Floyd is a great defender but i dont think he a top ATG defender,, anytime he fights top level guys his defense is not as spectacular as it is when he fights the canelo, ghost, gatti caliber fighters,,, When matched vs augustus, castillo, oscar, hatton, zab, corley, shane, cotto, he always gets tagged abit more,, Not that he doesnt still have great defensive skills in those fights, i just dont think i have ever seen him dominate defensively vs those caliber of fighters, which makes me reluctant to proclaim him an ATG defender,,,

[IronDanHamza]

I wont say he is not a great defender, probably the best of his era, but i have a tough time putting him on the whittaker, pep type level....

just look at pernell vs chavez or oscar and look at floyd vs oscar and cotto,,,

Floyd is a great defender but i dont think he a top ATG defender,, anytime he fights top level guys his defense is not as spectacular as it is when he fights the canelo, ghost, gatti caliber fighters,,, When matched vs augustus, castillo, oscar, hatton, zab, corley, shane, cotto, he always gets tagged abit more,, Not that he doesnt still have great defensive skills in those fights, i just dont think i have ever seen him dominate defensively vs those caliber of fighters, which makes me reluctant to proclaim him an ATG defender,,,

What about Corrales? Hernandez? Marquez?

How is Canelo not top calibur and Judah, Corley, Augustus and such are?

Most of the fighters you named barely touched Mayweather. They didn't land punches clean consistently other than Castillo in the first fight.

Shane? Why because he landed 2 solid punches and barely got touched the rest of the fight?

Look at all the fighters that tagged Whitaker. Roger Mayweather dropped him, Hurtado touched him, McGirt touched him, Riveria did, Nelson did.

What's the difference?

Mayweather is clearly one of the absolute greatest defensive fighters that has lived.

[joseph5620]

I wont say he is not a great defender, probably the best of his era, but i have a tough time putting him on the whittaker, pep type level....

just look at pernell vs chavez or oscar and look at floyd vs oscar and cotto,,,

Floyd is a great defender but i dont think he a top ATG defender,, anytime he fights top level guys his defense is not as spectacular as it is when he fights the canelo, ghost, gatti caliber fighters,,, When matched vs augustus, castillo, oscar, hatton, zab, corley, shane, cotto, he always gets tagged abit more,, Not that he doesnt still have great defensive skills in those fights, i just dont think i have ever seen him dominate defensively vs those caliber of fighters, which makes me reluctant to proclaim him an ATG defender,,,

Whitaker had very little offense against Oscar and vice versa. If he opened like Mayweather did he would have taken more punches. If you want to use that fight you can't ignore how much Whitaker got hit in his previous fight against Hurtado.

Cotto landed some jabs and very little else. Somehow Mayweather getting a bloody nose in that fight translates to him taking a lot of punishment. That fight wasn't close.

Mayweather got hit by Cotto about as much as Whitaker got hit by Chavez. I have seen Whitaker in his prime so I know how good he was. Mayweather jr is on his level and I have no problems saying that.

[TBear]

Rosario was able to tattoo a prime camacho, so im going to have to disagree on the bold

Rosario was able to tattoo a lot of fighters. And everyone on these lists was tattooed by someone sooner or later.

[tyger]

Rosario was able to tattoo a lot of fighters. And everyone on these lists was tattooed by someone sooner or later.

Camacho was a very good defensive fighter, til the night life got hold of him.

[Sugarj]

Bold 1--- Yes but you cant really rate guys based on sub par competition, Jeff Lacy looked like a monster vs sub par competition as well

Bold 2-- Totally agree,, i think pernell put on one of the best performances in defeat in many years

In relation to Naseem Hamed, he obviously proved himself to be world class as the featherweight division stood at the time. His many title defences more than confirm that. There were some handy guys that he beat......but he looked at his most elusive against European level opposition. There was some terrific highlight reel punch dodging at that level. Superb reflexes on show before actually becoming world champion. Not that there weren't glimpses against the likes of Bungu, Vasquez and Badillo.

'Sub par' might be a touch harsh in describing European and fringe world class, but I suppose that what made Whitaker so special was that he was able to dodge the speedy combinations of a prime De La Hoya.......when he was very much into his 30s. It was pretty incredible to watch at times.

Its hard to say what really is good technical defensive boxing. Some of the most elusive guys, who relied on reflexes looked defensively disastrous when their reflexes failed them.