Who had better defense..Ali or Roy Jones

[Caught Square]

Good post! Who do you think had the better defense Whitaker or Mayweather? A lot of people disagree on this. I personally think Floyd had the better defense as he was never cleanly knocked down, never defeated, had the better compubox numbers, and won more title fights than Whitaker. I think Sweetpea had the more fan friendly style however.

Man that's a tough one, if I had to pick i'd probably give a slight edge to Floyd as well. Purely on reflexes I don't think there is anyone better at evading punches than Whitaker though.

[Caught Square]

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

He did get hit in the first Liston fight mainly to the body occasionally. Obviously he hardly got hit in the 2nd fight it was one round! His defence was good I just don't see it as exceptional. Areas he was exceptional were his speed, footwork and stamina. Especially for a heavyweight.

I'd say Jones' prime was around 93-02. In that whole period he was dropped once in a flash knockdown of a fight he won every other minute of, and was hardly hit clean.

[-PBP-]

Ali because I haven't seen Roy Jones defend against the level of opposition and variety of styles that Ali faced.

[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.

[The Gambler1981]

Ali was more versatile with it because he would move and smoother guys tying them up. Roy was all about distance control and the odd crazy moves as avoided a shot on the way in or out, plus his counter punching was a huge deterrent.

It is kind of a pick'em because when they were on their games they were very tough to hit. I would say Jones was harder to hit though because at his best no one really touched him up at all, Ali did fight better guys but he got cracked a number of times even if he handled them well.

[therealpugilist]

prime for prime....Jones


Ali was a sucker for a jab and good left hook


Jones hardly got hit clean

[bojangles1987]

The margin between the two is probably so small as to be insignificant. Roy looked more untouchable at his best, but didn't fight the consistently great fighters that Ali did. At their best both looked like they couldn't be hit.

I'd probably give it to Roy since Ali has the kind of vulnerable defensive moments that Roy never did, but again at their best it's probably too close to be sure. We're not talking Whitaker compared to Chavez or anything.