There is no way within the laws of physics, that Foreman's chin could have got better. There is no conceivable training method that could have strengthened it. Trauma is cumulative. If the 90s fighters couldn't drop him, where the 70s fighters did, then that is simply a straight up mark against the 90s fighters.
What trauma? He talks better than Clinton and Obama in one of their conferences. However...old Foremans chin should be studied in some crash test laboratory imo. If you have genetics and you have a mission to accomplish for the Holy Spirit nothing can drop you.
This is how I see it to. I think George could go twelve, over fifteen I think he get's stopped on his feet after taking a lot of punishment. I also have to disagree with the notion that George's chin magically got better with age. I think what's likelier is that he improved his balance, coordination and ring smarts, and he paced himself a lot better, so he went down less. If you watch the Ali fight, you can see that the knockout is more a case of Foreman being completely exhausted than hurt, even leading up to the knockdown. He was also eating a lot of punches both in the round and throughout the fight. And while Ali probably didn't hit as hard as Gerry Cooney or Tommy Morrison, he was no featherfist and his hand speed was still pretty exceptional at that time in his career.
Young's KD was due to exhaustion and balance. It may not have even a knockdown in the true sense as the punch barely struck him. He almost tripped over seconds before as well. Old Foreman paced himself better and had better balance.
Anyone can be knocked off balance, given his circumstances it is even easier. Imagine if Hagler was not such a complete and balanced boxer i am certain he would have been dropped several times in his career yet of course he would be unhurt like Foreman he would still have tasted the canvas.
Well truth be told his chin appeared superior- he also took a very long time off so chances are he recovered something, the man put on muscle, began lifting and built an oak tree neck he also became a much safer defensive boxer bravo. Foreman bar two fights never took a lot of punishment in the 70s he took heads early. It is no knock on the punchers of the 90s it is an honor on Foremans part to achieve what he did. He also happened to be powered by conviction and faith separated from the raging ignorance of his youth maybe this was a factor?
I belive this is the most likely explanation. No one's chin gets better as they age but they can learn from experience and change their methods of fighting. Which is what he did.
The issue sometimes confounds me to be honest. Look at guys like Foreman and Toney. Foreman had a concrete jaw in his comeback and even taking the pacing and more conservative punching style into account he still showed some elite level durability even tho old. Toney got fatter as he got older and took on the heavyweights including some big punchers. could the 160 pound Toney who was heavily shook by Johnson have taken such shots later. Fair enough the KD was out of the blue as Toney was rarely ever bothered by punches but still. The thing both have in common is they were way bigger/fatter later. I often wonder if that extra weight (and neck size) helps absorb punches better. Holmes post Tyson was never dropped. It's fair to say he fought more cautiously but the guy was old too. He was also 20 odd pounds heavier than most of his earlier career. I am still somewhat open on the whole chin/age scenario. It's an open topic for me.
And we can add Wlad in there, getting kod early in his career and then going years Kd free. Perhaps being younger, your more reckless and over confident, so your dropping your defence more going for the kill. As you get older it's more about thinking first about what's coming your way? Idk, but some heavyweight s definitely get hurt less the older they get.
He's an interesting study tho different i think. He didn't really put any weight on post his last two stoppage losses. I think much of it for him was finding that hard to penetrate safety first style and relaxing a bit in there. For what he did and didn't bring to the table his refined style was perfect for him.
Perhaps there was a psychological component to it, but the fact remains, there is simply no way that his chin can have been better in his 40s, than it was in his prime!
Foremans jab might actually drop Louis to his knees if connected clean. No 190 pound body can hold a shot from Foreman.
George was exhausted against those guys not from being hit and hurt.I remember Ali talking about the first couple of rounds with Foreman sayin" ,I hit him with everything I had and he didn't blink" .
