Quote Originally Posted by Ron Swanson View Post
I'm surprised to see people saying GGGs defense is underrated. I think it is getting worse. Repeatedly in this fight he was hit before he saw the punch, usually the right hook. Sometimes the jab. A good defensive fighter gets hit but they see the punch.

I think GGG is getting close to making the classic mistake of falling in love with his power. I think his offense is dynamic but his defense is getting significantly worse.
I couldn't disagree more. GGG is very effective at parrying punches and taking something off them with his gloves, shoulders, elbows or by "riding" the punch/slipping it. He was caught early with some looping right hands, but he seemed to tighten his defense up a little and punished Murray to get him to stop throwing them. Murray was a solid world class fighter, as was Geale. GGG destroyed those guys and didn't look marked up in the face at all, so either he is EXTREMELY durable, or he is better defensively than you are giving him credit for. Julio Caesar Chavez was similar in that he was a stalker who was very adept at slipping and parrying shots while breaking guys down behind a heavy jab and beautiful combos. GGG is probably the best fighter today at cutting the ring off (Cotto is good also when he remembers to/wants to). Very effective and BRUTAL fighter.