Classic"Chicago style "fighters and who were the best Defensive Fighters of All Time (pre-1985)?

[Caractacus]

Dave Shade, I remember he had trained at Kd Howard's boxing gym in Chicago the 1926,
and was the one Kd Howard had Barney Ross get in the ring and try and knock a cigar out of his mouth.

[Caractacus]

Featherweight champions Abe Attell and Johnny Kilbane were both legendary defensive boxers.
-1912-

[Caractacus]

Middleweight contender Mike Gibbons aka "The Phantom" (Tom Gibbons older brother)
-1915-

[Caractacus]

Mike McTigue-another great defensive boxer
-1923-

-1927-

[Caractacus]

Yong Stribling slipped punches very well too.

[keithmoonhangover]

Willie Pastrano was a "New Orleans " style fighter and a mover
( but interestingly enough that is also where Johnny Coulon came up to Chicago from)

Did you ever hear Angelo's story about Willie drinking milk in training?

[Caractacus]

Lou Ambers was also said to have been a "Master of slipping punches".

[Caractacus]

and Willie Pep..... (perhaps) the best (?)

[Ambling Alp II]

The winning the round with without throwing a punch is a myth. Still he was one of the best defensive fighters of all time. He had both great both foot and head movement.

There probably were some guys who could have been great defensive fighters if they had chosen to be. However, they fought riskier. It's almost impossible to be a great defensive fighter and a great offensive fighter. i.e. a prime Ali.

[Caractacus]

-1977-

[Expug]

The winning the round with without throwing a punch is a myth. Still he was one of the best defensive fighters of all time. He had both great both foot and head movement.

There probably were some guys who could have been great defensive fighters if they had chosen to be. However, they fought riskier. It's almost impossible to be a great defensive fighter and a great offensive fighter. i.e. a prime Ali.

Very true. I think Matthew Saad Muhammad was one of those guys who had a nice boxing style. At some point though, he decided it was gonna be blood and thunder.

[Caractacus]

Is there any known film footage of Welterweight Champion Jack Britton ?
he had boxed professionly for 25 years.
I remember reading in Micky Walker's book that he just moved his head a fraction of an inch to avoid punches
(also a was a original trash talker in the ring too such as"That punch couldn't break an egg' type of stuff in the ring)

[Caractacus]

the Jack Britton vrs Mickey Walker welterweight title fight (November 1922) was never filmed.
However this story was reportedly based on it (published 1927)
Radio "Theater of the Mind",and the closest you can probably get to actually having been there.

[Caractacus]

George Benton

[Ambling Alp II]

Mike McTigue-another great defensive boxer
-1923-

-1927-

Always thought McTigue was an interesting fighter. He seems to have got lost in the shuffle and forgotten about.

[Seamus]

Benny Leonard had a brilliantly effective defensive style. Hands held relatively low, head back watching for incoming punches which he'd slip by briefly rocking back and forth and almost on his heels. He looked easy to hit until you tried to hit him.

[Ambling Alp II]

For the rare fighters that had talent that could get away with it, holding your hands low makes sense. i.e. Tunney, Ali, Holmes.
Benny Leonard was one of the ATGs.

[Caractacus]

George Benton (in an interview) had said that he had learnt his defensive techniques from a boxer named Jimmy Collins,
whom he claimed that one 'couldn't hit with a hand-full of rice"
https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/138618

[JC]

Mickey Duff, the famous British promoter and cornerman, was one of the last of the Jewish fighters to come out of the East End of London. He fought in the 1950s and talked about how he used to spar with a fighter (I think it was George Daly). Daly was so elusive he used to say ‘if you land a punch on me I’ll pay for you to go to the pictures’ (movies). Duff said: ‘Sometimes I’d go weeks without seeing a film’.

[Caractacus]

Whom had been George Daly's trainer and did anyone at the gym bother to teach those techniques to Mickey Duff ?

[kasimirkid]

Your description of "Chicago-style" as a boxer's ability to "defend himself with very little movement other then slightly moving the upper body by slipping punches by inches" sounds a lot like the St. Paul style which was attributed to Mike and Tommy Gibbons, Jock Malone, Lee Savold, and others. Jack Hurley was from Fargo and he was based for a year at the Rose City Gym in the basement of the Hamm's Brewery Building in downtown St. Paul in 1922-1923 when Mike Gibbon was training a large contingent of pro fighters there. Hurley taught the style to his fighters Billy Petrolle, Harry Matthews, Billy Marquart and the young Vince Foster. The style involved more than just moving the upper body. It also involved shifting the feet to work angles to place the fighter in position the for a well-leveraged counter. Hurley promoted, managed and operated a gym in Chicago from 1935 to 1950, and he passed the style on to trainers and managers Lou Gross and Don Elbaum among others, so he may have been an influence on what you call "Chicago-style."

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

I would have to say that perhaps the term "Classic Chicago Style' boxer
must go back to Jack Johnson (as he had fought out of Chicago of course in the 1910's)
But from whom did Jack Johnson learn it from there ?(that is the question)

[Caractacus]

Did Joe Jeanette actually fight in that style ?
it looks like he is trying to maybe emulate Jim J. Jeffries in that one.

[Caractacus]

I was reading the biography of Ron Lyle the other day, and it read that in 1976
Lyle had a new trainer named Sam Boardman a journeyman from the 1940's who came from
'The old Jewish Chicago style of training". (whatever that means)