Who had better defense..Ali or Roy Jones

[BigAlexSand]

How am i baiting?

Because only a complete delusional hater or fan boy would be as idiotic to say claim as said before "Ali had no defense"... Ali was an athletic monster, and could be argued more so than Jones... And more debatable than who's defense was better.

Jones was good but Ali's defense was great and was possibly the greatest defense heavyweight boxer of all time.

[Real King Kong]

Jones' defense technically wasn't great, but his natural athleticism were such that you couldn't land a finger on him until time finally caught up with him after decades of boxing.

Ali when older still managed to outhustle a massive puncher in Foreman with his defensive skills.

Jones better natural defensive abilities
Ali better technical defensive skills

Neither had very technical defensive skills. When ali's legs went he tried to pull away from punches and got hit a lot.

[fanofslug]

Ali because he maintained a solid defense when he was old. Dundee said that a lot of people thought Ali's defense was just slipping punches, but it was more than that. He sapped a lot of his oponent's stamina by using his strength. It's in another thread on this site "The best I faced", a really interesting thread about the best people you've trained and the best you've fought: http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=641139

[creekrat77]

Ali by far. Roy's defense was all in his super hero like reflexes and speed. His defense was almost completely lighting fast footwork jumping in and out of his opponents range. Ali could just pit himself in a corner and roll and dodge punches like it was nothing.

[BrometheusBob.]

Jones' defense technically wasn't great, but his natural athleticism were such that you couldn't land a finger on him until time finally caught up with him after decades of boxing.

Ali when older still managed to outhustle a massive puncher in Foreman with his defensive skills.

Jones better natural defensive abilities
Ali better technical defensive skills

My vote was for Jones but my real answer is basically this^

[-Kev-]

I don't care if Roy was a super saiyin in his prime and Tarver collected the 7 dragon balls and wished he was human so he can catch him and KO him. You can't say, he didn't really have good defense, it was that he was just a super saiyin. That makes zero sense. Athleticism, fundamentals, magic, sweet science, whatever it was, it helped him not get hit. That was his defense. If your defense is dodging and being elusive, that's still defense. Defense is not just Winky/Clottey/Abraham style defense where you block. Where it's something that you can see the fighter actually making an effort to do. Roy looked effortless while on the defensive, he made you miss as his defense, end of. He was defending himself by avoiding his opponents punches and countering.

[IronDanHamza]

I don't care if Roy was a super saiyin in his prime and Tarver collected the 7 dragon balls and wished he was human so he can catch him and KO him. You can't say, he didn't really have good defense, it was that he was just a super saiyin. That makes zero sense. Athleticism, fundamentals, magic, sweet science, whatever it was, it helped him not get hit. That was his defense. If your defense is dodging and being elusive, that's still defense. Defense is not just Winky/Clottey/Abraham style defense where you block. Where it's something that you can see the fighter actually making an effort to do. Roy looked effortless while on the defensive, he made you miss as his defense, end of. He was defending himself by avoiding his opponents punches and countering.

Exactly.

What is defense? Defense is avoiding punches. Simple as that.

Roy Jones may not have had the fundemtnals and technical skills of a Hopkins or a Mayweather to have the same longevity but at his best Roy Jones was extremely difficult to hit. It doesn't matter what how he went about it.

And Roy Jones technical ability is underrated anyway.

[soul_survivor]

Ali better technically and in terms of natural gifts of speed and reflex. It's one thing for a guy to have such reflexes and fleet feet at 160-175lb and to build a career against average fighters but it's entirely different to have such speed and reflexes, weight above 200lb AND beat some of the greatest heavyweights ever.

Ali. Period.

[DumpkinsPlus5]

Jones got hit less, therefore he had better defense. I don't care how he did it, the fact of the matter is he avoided punches.

"Oh but when he lost a step doe"

Um Ali didn't look as good as an old man either but having a great chin got him over.

Lastly, people keep talking about Jones' natural athleticism as if Ali didn't rely on reflexes as well. Let's not act like Ali wasn't athletically gifted as well, and didn't use his natural ability to his advantage.

[Stuntman Mike]

Lol people always dismiss Jones skills and defence by saying stuff like he's just a athletic freak with no fundamentals.

That's not all true but even if it was surely better defence is decided by who got hit less? so in this case it's clearly Jones prime for prime. Ali had good defence but not exceptional. The way he gracefully moved around the ring and sometimes dodged jabs can fool people into thinking he had amazing defence but he got hit quite a bit in between.

Surely if you're talking prme for prime then you take the Ali from say 64-67 in which he hardly got hit and he was against Sonny Liston in two of those fights a devastating defense breaker with a ramrod accurate jab which he struggled to land ...and please share the time Roy jones was prime(probably a longer period but against lesser opposition..Roy got hit a fair bit against hopkins and some other fighters if i remember right he just took punches a bit better on the juice