BoxRec

I recently watched a few niccolino loche fights and this guy is genuinely unreal defensively. One of his fights (linked below) was pure defensive genius from start to finish. Got me thinking about expert defensive performances by British fighters and couldn't really come up with any. Can anyone give any examples of stellar defensive performances in a British ring?




https://youtu.be/tr1dduSWI50

Naseem Hamed had really excellent defensive reflexes in his prime, but was so offensive minded that he'd still get hit quite a bit. Like you I can't think of any British fighters off the top of my head that were known almost purely as defensive specialists like Locche is.

Agree here, British fighters typically are more attacking and a bit defensively open to real good sharp shooters

Frankie Gavin had the talent and composure to break the mold. What that guy could see in the boxing ring whilst in punching range, being able to slip and see the punches coming and counter with nice shots. He had some talent. Definitely not your usual British fighter. Unfortunately he hadn’t the dedication to get as far in boxing as he should with his talents.

The wincobank gym has produced some fighters who whilst not textbook defensive talents, are defensively good as they are pretty unorthodox

Herol Graham (vs Rod Douglas or Chris Johnson, if you really want to see him look virtually unhittable)

Uh. Minor shout for Booth vs Paul Hunter. I don't recall Hunter landing a significant punch.

Uh. Ian Napa at his best.

Uh. I feel like there's more but memory fails me

Colin McMillan mate

Here's a strange suggestion - Joe Calzaghe. Was he ever knocked down, was he ever in trouble , did he fight big punchers. Does his face today look like that of a world champion super middleweight.

knocked down a bunch mate

dalcumly wrote:Here's a strange suggestion - Joe Calzaghe. Was he ever knocked down, was he ever in trouble , did he fight big punchers. Does his face today look like that of a world champion super middleweight.

Byron Mitchell put Calzaghe down heavy but to his credit his instinct was to come back swinging and he stopped him

I think salem put him down also. Flash knock down no problems

Hopkins put him down flash knock down

Jones Jr put him down and had him buzzed imo

Overall he had a good chin though. Hopkins and Roy was at the end of his career and I think his punch resistance was on the wane.

He’s not a defensive wizard or anything though. But he could throw a lot of punches in bunches and basically over whelm the opponents attack, so it kind of worked defensively also. If that makes sense. Very difficult to punch with calzaghe

Watched the fight you posted here by the way Leppy. You're right really brilliant defense.

You can see why they called him the Argentinian Willie Pep.

fuckk me at the blue guy in that clip. amazing. how have i not heard of him.

Counter-puncher wrote:Colin McMillan mate

First bloke that came to my mind.

I think Jim Driscoll was known as a defensive fighter.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned Tyson Fury yet?

Junior Witter was very elusive against Judah, although he didn't do anything offensive either.

And when Kirkland Laing didn't want to be hit he was a joy to watch - although because of his crappy training methods he could get caught later on.

gilgamesh wrote:Watched the fight you posted here by the way Leppy. You're right really brilliant defense.

You can see why they called him the Argentinian Willie Pep.

Going slightly off topic (Pep was called Will O The Wisp) the Aussie fighter from the 19th century, Young Griffo (also known as the Will O The Wisp), was said to go into bars, put a handkerchief on the floor, and challenge anyone to try to hit him. For a drink of course When I was a kid I used to hear the old timers (in mags) say he was the best defensive fighter of all time.

Sam Eggington.

Herol Graham
Ken Buchanan

[quote="Counter-puncher"]Herol Graham (vs Rod Douglas or Chris Johnson, if you really want to see him look virtually unhittable)

Spot on, that is one of my absolute favourite performances, especially the first round. It was like, welcome to the pro game Rod, this is what it's all about.

Inconsistent, but Laing was talented defensively. Old school Jem Driscoll and nel Tarleton.

Winstone as well.

Tommy Farr had some swish defensive skills. A light heavy who went 15 with Joe Louis, a heavyweight with enough power to flatten 6'5'', 250lb behemoths, and averted danger. Joe Bugner was criticised for being a defensive minded heavy.

Herol Graham seems the obvious choice, though it seems strange to applaud the defence of a chap who fought the division's biggest banger with his chin in the air, arms down by his sides, and got stretched for 10 minutes.

Tuan_Jim wrote:Tommy Farr had some swish defensive skills. A light heavy who went 15 with Joe Louis, a heavyweight with enough power to flatten 6'5'', 250lb behemoths, and averted danger. Joe Bugner was criticised for being a defensive minded heavy.

Herol Graham seems the obvious choice, though it seems strange to applaud the defence of a chap who fought the division's biggest banger with his chin in the air, arms down by his sides, and got stretched for 10 minutes.

I think Graham was in offensive mood in that fight and it was working for him but he got a bit carried away,at that stage he could have boxed Jackson and most likely won on stoppage due to the eye damage.when in defensive mood he was a genius.

Ossyrules wrote:

dalcumly wrote:Here's a strange suggestion - Joe Calzaghe. Was he ever knocked down, was he ever in trouble , did he fight big punchers. Does his face today look like that of a world champion super middleweight.

Byron Mitchell put Calzaghe down heavy but to his credit his instinct was to come back swinging and he stopped him

I think salem put him down also. Flash knock down no problems

Hopkins put him down flash knock down

Jones Jr put him down and had him buzzed imo

Overall he had a good chin though. Hopkins and Roy was at the end of his career and I think his punch resistance was on the wane.

He’s not a defensive wizard or anything though. But he could throw a lot of punches in bunches and basically over whelm the opponents attack, so it kind of worked defensively also. If that makes sense. Very difficult to punch with calzaghe

Yeah Salem had him down. That was a horrible fight. He was a dirty bastard that guy.

Ossyrules wrote:

dalcumly wrote:Here's a strange suggestion - Joe Calzaghe. Was he ever knocked down, was he ever in trouble , did he fight big punchers. Does his face today look like that of a world champion super middleweight.

Byron Mitchell put Calzaghe down heavy but to his credit his instinct was to come back swinging and he stopped him

I think salem put him down also. Flash knock down no problems

Hopkins put him down flash knock down

Jones Jr put him down and had him buzzed imo

Overall he had a good chin though. Hopkins and Roy was at the end of his career and I think his punch resistance was on the wane.

He’s not a defensive wizard or anything though. But he could throw a lot of punches in bunches and basically over whelm the opponents attack, so it kind of worked defensively also. If that makes sense. Very difficult to punch with calzaghe

And also hurt or jolted by Eubank, Kessler late in their fights when his attention wandered. And pelted numerous times by Robin Reid and Richie Woodall although seemingly never hurt. And I saw his head snapped back a few times in the Mario Veit fight in Germany, the rematch.

I see Joe as one of the most physical of all British fighters, always wanting to push the opponent back, dominate them physically and not afraid of exchanging and taking the odd power shot here and there especially if they’re backed up with less power on their shots.

Counter-puncher wrote:Ian Napa at his best.

1st person that stung to mine Without a doubt 100% great Defence
Done great and at Bantam Weight he could of made Fly if he could of Punched he would of been World Champion for a long time..

Generally speaking the better the defensicve fighter the less entertaining they are…..so I tried to think of the most boring fighter to get to my conlcusion.

Alas: Junior Witter. Not the best shout but I wanted to contribute. He was hard to hit!

Stuarty30 wrote:

Ossyrules wrote:

dalcumly wrote:Here's a strange suggestion - Joe Calzaghe. Was he ever knocked down, was he ever in trouble , did he fight big punchers. Does his face today look like that of a world champion super middleweight.

Byron Mitchell put Calzaghe down heavy but to his credit his instinct was to come back swinging and he stopped him

I think salem put him down also. Flash knock down no problems

Hopkins put him down flash knock down

Jones Jr put him down and had him buzzed imo

Overall he had a good chin though. Hopkins and Roy was at the end of his career and I think his punch resistance was on the wane.

He’s not a defensive wizard or anything though. But he could throw a lot of punches in bunches and basically over whelm the opponents attack, so it kind of worked defensively also. If that makes sense. Very difficult to punch with calzaghe

Yeah Salem had him down. That was a horrible fight. He was a dirty bastard that guy.

disgusting fight. Joe could be brilliant but he could get dragged down by a good spoiler like Salem and Starie and Bika and and...

Think this was the first fight televised must after I’d subscribed to Sky Sports. Wasn’t Joe supposed to fight Brian Magee, pulled out with bad hands and this was his next fight?

Really hated the Network of obscure, fringe world class opponents that would get brought in.

Autobarn wrote:

Ossyrules wrote:

dalcumly wrote:Here's a strange suggestion - Joe Calzaghe. Was he ever knocked down, was he ever in trouble , did he fight big punchers. Does his face today look like that of a world champion super middleweight.

Byron Mitchell put Calzaghe down heavy but to his credit his instinct was to come back swinging and he stopped him

I think salem put him down also. Flash knock down no problems

Hopkins put him down flash knock down

Jones Jr put him down and had him buzzed imo

Overall he had a good chin though. Hopkins and Roy was at the end of his career and I think his punch resistance was on the wane.

He’s not a defensive wizard or anything though. But he could throw a lot of punches in bunches and basically over whelm the opponents attack, so it kind of worked defensively also. If that makes sense. Very difficult to punch with calzaghe

And also hurt or jolted by Eubank, Kessler late in their fights when his attention wandered. And pelted numerous times by Robin Reid and Richie Woodall although seemingly never hurt. And I saw his head snapped back a few times in the Mario Veit fight in Germany, the rematch.

I see Joe as one of the most physical of all British fighters, always wanting to push the opponent back, dominate them physically and not afraid of exchanging and taking the odd power shot here and there especially if they’re backed up with less power on their shots.

Brewer also landed on him plenty. Calzaghe had a great chin but a below average defence for most of him fights.
Lacy fight is obviously the main exception, proving Calzaghe could avoid shots when he really felt he had to. But more often than not, the plan was to overwhelm the opposition.