Best striking defense in the UFC (currently and in the past)

Tibbles said:
Anderson is an interesting one.

He has insane reactions and head movement but he does get hit. Bonnar connected on 28 out of his 59 strikes before he was brutally stopped. Maia and Sonnen (in the first fight) were also able to land some punches despite having relatively poor striking. Forrest couldn't land anything but he's slow on a good day and was drugged up on anti-anxiety medication for that fight.
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But it was mostly in the clinch and he was playing with Bonnar. He stood there on the fence lol.
Sonnen hit him well I don't know what happened there, maybe the fear of the takedown and Sonnen surprised him.
 
Happiness said:
It's not a good sign when a pro starts to rely on rolling with punches.
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He doesn't rely on it though, it's just one of his many defensive tools. Head movement, distance, and opponents being terrified to throw punches at him are the major things.

On the feet I'd go with Anderson and Cruz. GSP has brilliant striking defence on the ground though. Not Machida yet... Machida's only real defensive weakness is dropping the lead hand due to his karate background (hiki-te?), which he'd clearly worked on in his last fight. He seems to be using more lateral movement rather than just backing up now, which should help him if he ever faces Shogun again.
 
Happiness said:
It's not a good sign when a pro starts to rely on rolling with punches.
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He doesn't rely on it, at all. He could be much more methodical and avoid damage by using his amazing footwork and upperbody movement, but he's so confident that he stands right infront of his opponents and eat shots.

Anderson is the obvious winner. Aldo also has very good defence.
 
Jon Jones doesn't take a lot of damage in fights normally
 
Anderson has the most effective, economical, and efficient defense in the UFC by far. He always seems to execute all the right moves at exactly the right time. His head-movement is above and beyond anyone in the UFC, and so is his foot-work. Many of these other guys who get praised for their "foot-work" just tend to run around in circles like some fucking tweaker or something. Whereas with Anderson every movement he does looks so precise and calculated, yet so fluid and spontaneous. This guy is in a league of his own, nobody comes close.
 
Karateka1 said:
Anderson has the most effective, economical, and efficient defense in the UFC by far. He always seems to do all the right things at exactly the right time. His head-movement is above and beyond anyone in the UFC, and so is his foot-work. I notice alot of these other guys who get lauded for their "foot-work" just tend to run around in circles like some fucking tweaker or something. Whereas with Anderson every movememnt looks so precise and calculated, yet so fluid and spontaneous. This guy is in a league of his own, noboy comes close.
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Good call, Anderson has elite footwork. Striking novices often equate active feet with good footwork (I largely blame Ali for this). In actuality great footwork is always being somewhere that's great for you and bad for your opponent. Jack Johnson for example had incredible footwork, he stalked his opponents always staying at the perfect range and angle for himself.

Watching Anderson use his feet to place himself is fantastic.
 
Philip Davis

Lyoto Machida

Anderson Silva

Dominick Cruz
 
Anderson,

He uses his distance, footwork, and head movement masterly

Cruz and GSP used more their distance and footwork but not so much head movement

Jones, he used his distance and huge reach
 
Cruz - Hardest worker in terms of not getting hit
Machida
Jon Jones - Extended finger in your face technique
Mark Hunt

Honerable Mentions:

Andrei Arlovski
Korean Zombie
Leonard Garcia
Shogun Rua
Chris Leben
Demacio Page
Ben Rothwell
 
Anderson for footwork/headmovements/ timing. Machida is a close second, in timing especially, but he takes more hits than anderson. Both slip and counter very well though. I honestly believe Anderson when he says he doesn't want to fight Bones because he doesn't want to take the opportunity from Lyoto though. I think if Machida gets another shot and loses next year, Jones will fight Anderson before leaving the division.
 
Anderson is good at rolling with punches but he actually does get hit quite a lot.

I don't know why but most mma fighters seems to have seriously bad defence.
 
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