Best Fighters W/The Worst Defense

[Goodnight, Irene]

who are some of the best fighters of all-time that had poor defensive
skills?

off the top of my head, i'd have to go with matthew franklin/matthew
saad muhummad. he must have had a chin/jaw filled w/bricks
before he met qawi in '81 cause this guy just did not get the purpose
of bob & weave or slipping punches. went straight into guard
and would get rocked w/shots constantly. had he put emphasis
on defense he probably could have had a longer prime. though
great exciting fighter when he was prime.

Bowe could've beaten a few of the greats, & he had one of the absolute worst defenses I've seen at a world-class level, without exaggeration. His victim, Holyfield, is a definite all-timer (arguably in two weightclasses) with pretty shoddy defense. Foreman & Jeffries were very open, as was Pryor, who is arguably a great. Tszyu, another debatable one, was quite available, & the greatest of our generation, Pacquiao, has never been a defensive whiz. Morales, too. It actually goes on & on.

[I Feel Fine]

Good question and good choices. I suppose someone who wasn't already mentioned who might be another candidate for this would be Basilio; seems to me that he took more punches than he had to. But you don't get into five consecutive fights of the year by having great defense. But, as GI said, a list of candidates could probably go on and on.

[theone]

As great as he was, Sugar Ray Robinson's defense wasnt on par with the rest of his amazing attributes.

[gilgamesh]

Danny "Little Red" Lopez had a pretty solid run at Featherweight, but he took a LOT of punches.

[dempseyfire]

who are some of the best fighters of all-time that had poor defensive
skills?

off the top of my head, i'd have to go with matthew franklin/matthew
saad muhummad. he must have had a chin/jaw filled w/bricks
before he met qawi in '81 cause this guy just did not get the purpose
of bob & weave or slipping punches. went straight into guard
and would get rocked w/shots constantly. had he put emphasis
on defense he probably could have had a longer prime. though
great exciting fighter when he was prime.

Bowe could've beaten a few of the greats, & he had one of the absolute worst defenses I've seen at a world-class level, without exaggeration. His victim, Holyfield, is a definite all-timer (arguably in two weightclasses) with pretty shoddy defense. Foreman & Jeffries were very open, as was Pryor, who is arguably a great. Tszyu, another debatable one, was quite available, & the greatest of our generation, Pacquiao, has never been a defensive whiz. Morales, too. It actually goes on & on.

I definitely wouldn't put Pryor in that category. He got hit b/c he was so offensive-minded, but he could box and move and be very slick, he had great head movement.

Foreman's defense in his prime was better than given credit for. He had quick reflexes and was very good at blocking punches with his gloves and forearms. Besides the Ali and Lyle fights, Foreman didn't get hit very much. Even Young didn't really land anything until the last 4 rounds after a dehydrated Foreman started fatiguing.

Bowe and Saad are definitely high in this category. Bowe was getting nailed clean shots by Pierre Coatzer for crying out loud . . .

[vagabundo55]

Julio Cesar Chavez should get a mention here, sometimes his best blocking technique was using his thick skull.

[orbtastic]

McCullough.