Building on what everyone else had said: what it comes down to is personal preference and perception. Whatever state of mind the boxer is in when he first starts boxing is most often what he or she builds their foundation upon. It's like the way you behave around a very good friend, most often you regress back to the way you were when you first met them. With boxers, there have traditionally been a cyclical love affair between boxers they've admired from years past. So someone loving Joe Frazier may want to emulate his tough, Philly style (no matter what the coach says). What it comes down to first and foremost is what style a boxer chooses to adopt, typically under the influence of their favorite boxer, but more favorable with what their coach suggests to them.

If a kid wants to bang, he's gonna bang. If a kid wants to box, he's gonna box, and so on and so forth.

Personally, I feel to be a dominating fighter, you have to be willing and open to all aspects of boxing. Boxing has so many dimensions, that it perplexes me to hear a boxer commit to only one facet of it. Counter punching, feinting, and all the rest of these boxing tools should be in every boxer's tool box, it should NOT be a choice. I don't care how tough you think you are, no one is immune to the cutting waters of time. You'll slow down, you'll wear just like everyone else. What can you do to delay this in terms of boxing? You can fight intelligently and not get hit so much. Being an intelligent boxer is commonly associated with not having power. This is a common boxing fallacy, usually held in belief to those who merely watch boxing. The power comes two fold, a physical impact to the face or body, and a mental impact on your opponent.

The greatest asset for a boxer is arguably is attitude. Men have survived things that should have killed them 10 times over, but their will to live was so strong that miraculously, they lived. When you make your opponent miss(and ideally make them pay as well), you take away that mental edge that they brought with them into the ring. You take their focus away, and suddenly they're more focused on why they can't hit ya instead of figuring out HOW to hit ya. These are all just general statements, I can't tell you the mental fortitude of every single boxer in the ring, but generally these are the feelings that counter punching illicit.

It is only to a boxer's benefit that he or she learns to make hitting, how to hit and how NOT to get hit an intuitive part of their training.

Smart and intuitive boxing: winning fights since the dawn of time.