Bantam - ? Feather - ? Light - Chavez Jr Welter - ? Welter - JL Lopez Jr Middle - McCallum Middle - Hagler Super Middle - Toney Lt Heavy - ? Heavy - McCall
Agreed. I´d also edit: 130 - 140: Julio Cesar Chavez 168 - 190: James Toney Heavy: Randall ´Tex´ Cobb
I'd go with Jofre at Bantam and Sanchez or Laporte at feather. Junior welter is obviously Chavez. Light heavweight is a good question. Maybe Spinks, he was never dropped at 175 (only dropped by Tyson) but he did get buzzed a few times at lightheavy. Still, he had a very good chin at light heavy. Qawi had an excellent chin. As did Virgil Hill.
Robinson was dropped a few times at Welter ... obviously still had a great chin but I don't think he's an automatic choice there... There's Basilio, Gavilan with at least as good a claim LaPorte at featherweight is a good choice, McCullough at bantam is too Gregorio Peralta had a granite chin at 175 and heavyweight Angel Robinson Garcia, the extremely well-traveled fringe contender/respected journeyman of the 1960s fought from lightweight to middleweight and fought practically every other notable fighter on Earth was stopped three times in like 240 fights and I'm pretty sure two of them were cuts, the other I have no idea... clearly had a chin
Based on what? I few rounds against a cautious overweight Lewis when he was totally coked-out his face anyway? 210lb Zeljko Mavrovich took bigger shots vs a much more aggressive Lewis in 12 rounds...
If we go by a lot of people´s consensus as Lennox Lewis being one of the heaviest punchers in the last 50 years, then Željko Mavrović and maybe Vitali Klitschko have the best chins at heavyweight.
Based on sparring Tyson I do think Mccall had a great chin but let's face it he hardly fought any all time punchers. Lewis hardly landed any flush shots in the rematch. Old man Foreman was a much more proven commodity than Oliver.
Exactly. People read way too much into the ´all-time´ myth that has perpetuated McCall´s (good) chin because of those factors: * sparring partner with Mike Tyson (so what? they used 14-18oz gloves and headguards) * 6 rounds with, as I´ve said, a very cautious Lewis who picked his power-shots * 12 rounds with Frank Bruno, a fight whereby, following a big shot in about Rd2 or 3, McCall went into his shell for the rest of the fight
Oh and George Chuvalo comes further down the list too. Everyone raves about Chuvalo who was tough, no doubt, but he faced guys who either weren't as effective or bigger punchers than Lewis. (namely, Foreman, Frazier and Ali)
Great chin... wasn't knocked out until he was an ancient corpse with two long spells of inactivity... and I only remember him being hurt once in his real career and that was Holyfield catching him blind with some absolutely hellacious counters and even then he pretty much went to a knee briefly
I'll never forget the first round of Mercer-Morrison, when Tommy nailed Ray with a right uppercut/left hook combination right on the point of the chin that would have KO'd an ox, and Mercer didn't blink.
Morrison landed some ridiculous bombs in that fight ... bounced right off of Mercer's craterous face like nothing
I used to work with a guy called Ray Mercer. I often called him ´Merciless´ and he never had a clue why.
Kid Gavilan at welter. Never stopped in over 200 fights. And that was when guys wore little ass gloves filled horse hair with retractable thumbs, fought in a side saddle Tae Kwon Do power punchers stance and twice a month in barns, bars and parking lots.
I believe Gavilan was only on the floor twice in his whole career which was like 150 fights... Once against Carmen Basilio and once against Ike Williams
Yeah, forgot about Gavilan. Great chin indeed. How bout Ismael Laguna at lightweight? To my knowledge, Laguna was never stopped. Dunno how many times he was dropped. I do recall him getting hurt against Buchanan, but he definitely had a very solid chin.
Thing with him though is he was a runner and a defensive specialist and didn't really get hit very much plus there's not a whole lot of big bangers in his resume, he had a good chin still and I'd put Duran up there as well. Only down twice in his first what, 75 fights over like 16 years? ... Chavez had the best chin of any lightweight I've seen ...
