Look at this episode of superhumans. This man hammers a nail into a piece of wood with his head. Research shows that his skull is more than twice as thick as an average skull. So do you think that these guys with great chins like Oliver McCall and David Tua have a thick skull? [video=youtube;ZpRm_TeL0FE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpRm_TeL0FE[/video]
When Vitali fought Williams and Sanders, the forehead shots were absorbed like nothing. Yet arm punches directly to the chin caused discombobulation. Williams and Sanders were both hurt by shots which seemed far less consequential than ones they had previously absorbed or would go on to absorb. Knockouts in boxing are caused by a variety of punches but the ones which do the most damage are shots directly onto the jaw, causing a "brain-shake".
skull thickness is the most important factor in skull thickness. "Chin" in boxing is a menagerie of factors.....in fact considering that fighters get stopped on uppercuts, temple shots, concussions, shots to the top of the head, etc, its hard to sum up concisely just what a strong chin is. Also consider the fact that chins can get broken......and never repair. Thats symptomatic of brain damage, albeit minor and specific brain damage.
I still think not getting hit on the chin with your chin in the air is the biggest part of having a 'good chin'.
Yes, of course. But what if you had thin-temples, or a thin back of your head, as a lot of "negroid" peoples do {Roy Jones has it, just look at how his dome meets his face} shots to that area would do a lot of damage.
there is no blueprint for having a good chin... some people just have a sort of built in ability to take a lot of shots without going down Juan LaPorte got caught with his chin in the air 100 times... never appeared even mildly stunned by a shot... he didn't look particularly different either... his head, his neck, his shoulders were all normal... He would get caught blind and nothing ever happened... there is no real explanation for it
agREED... Another Interesting Case was Paul Williams, whose BODY-TYPE Suggested a WEAK Chin...On Top of that, Williams' chin was POINTY & he had a Loooooooooooong NARROW Neck to Go w/It...Nonetheless, Up Until the RE w/Sergio Martinez, Williams Exhibited a GREAT Chin... No Real Explanation There Either... REED:hammert:
There are different types of trauma. I once headed a golf-ball for fun, which somebody had lofted to me to head....the pain was excruciating. It bounced off the top of my head. My eyes watered up...a child could have pushed me over. That's blunt force trauma, severe pain, sudden weakness, which might in boxing result in a stoppage as a maimed, disoriented fighter was overwhelmed with follow-up punishment. Then there is a shot which shakes the brain, a direct shot to the chin, which snaps the brain about violently, causes minimal external damage, and usually the fighter is OK after a few minutes. Take Marciano vs Walcott...the chin moves with the impact, which protects the chin, but ruins the brain, or the blood-flow to the brain. A temple shot might be both...it doesn't move the brain as much as a chin shot, as the temple offers less leverage over the brain than the far more prominent chin, but the skull is thinner at that point. Sometimes the dome of the head can offer a point of leverage allowing shots high on the head to do more damage. Specifically what we are talking about in a KO is an involuntary state of affairs {as opposed to cowering in pain, making a decision to quit etc} brought on by the movement of the brain inside the head. Sometimes it is nervous, like a solar pelxus shot, where you want to move, are thinking clearly, but can't.