Top 26 Defensive Boxers of All Time

Hitting is the easy half of boxing. These are the fighters who solved the other one.

1. 1
   Floyd Mayweather

   Built fifty wins on the shoulder roll and finished with barely a mark on him.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Winky Wright

   The high guard that Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley could not get through.
   574pts
3. 3
   James Toney

   Carried the shoulder roll up four weight divisions across twenty years.
   558pts
4. 4
   Guillermo Rigondeaux

   Two-time Olympic champion whose defence made him almost impossible to book.
   447pts
5. 5
   Sugar Ray Robinson

   The complete fighter, and the defensive model everyone after him copied.
   447pts
6. 6
   Nicolino Locche

   Nicknamed The Untouchable for fighting entire rounds with his hands down.
   446pts
7. 7
   Ezzard Charles

   A light heavyweight technician who beat heavyweights by never being where they punched.
   446pts
8. 8
   Andre Ward

   Controlled distance so precisely that opponents ran out of ideas by the middle rounds.
   378pts
9. 9
   Willie Pep

   Reputed to have won a round without throwing a punch.
   378pts
10. 10
    Pernell Whitaker

    Made world-class opponents miss so badly that judges struggled to score the rounds.
    298pts
11. 11
    Vasiliy Lomachenko

    Steps to the side of opponents until they lose track of where he is.
    298pts
12. 12
    Bernard Hopkins

    Used range, timing and forty-nine years of ring craft to stay unhittable.
    203pts
13. 13
    Muhammad Ali

    Avoided punches by leaning back from them, which no trainer recommends and only he survived.
    0pts
14. 14
    Wilfred Benitez

    Won a world title at 17 on reflexes alone.
    0pts
15. 15
    Jack Johnson

    Heavyweight champion whose blocking, parrying and counterpunching made him nearly impossible to hit cleanly in the 1900s and 1910s.
16. 16
    James J. Corbett

    'Gentleman Jim' brought scientific footwork and slipping to the heavyweights and used them to dethrone John L. Sullivan in 1892.
17. 17
    Gene Tunney

    Heavyweight champion who twice outboxed Jack Dempsey with footwork and defence and lost only once as a professional.
18. 18
    Benny Leonard

    Lightweight champion of the 1910s and 1920s whose slick defence was said to leave his hair unruffled after fights.
19. 19
    Young Griffo

    Australian featherweight of the 1890s famed for slipping punches while standing on a handkerchief.
20. 20
    Tommy Loughran

    Light heavyweight champion of the late 1920s, regarded as one of the purest defensive boxers of his era.
21. 21
    Archie Moore

    Long-reigning light heavyweight champion whose cross-armed 'armadillo' guard let him box into his late forties.
22. 22
    Jersey Joe Walcott

    Heavyweight champion whose feints and shifting footwork left opponents punching air.
23. 23
    Roy Jones Jr.

    Four-division champion whose reflexes and speed made him almost untouchable through the 1990s.
24. 24
    Erislandy Lara

    Cuban southpaw world champion whose distance control made him one of the hardest men to hit at 154 pounds.
25. 25
    Shakur Stevenson

    Multi-weight world champion whose opponents land fewer punches against him than against almost anyone in modern boxing.
26. 26
    Héctor Camacho

    Flashy 'Macho' southpaw and three-division champion known for his hand speed and elusiveness.

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