Alright alright alright. I think you boys are going for Titanium. I'd express it a lot like @George Crowcroft where I think you can argue either two to tier slots but I think i'd lean towards iron rather than titanium - but you guys have the final say. So titanium it is for Tiger - as I said though, it's not settled, if anyone powerfully disagrees and wants to present a case, fire at will!
How about Nino Benvenuti? He was only ever stopped on an injury (Tom Bethea busted his rib) and twice by Carlos Monzon while building 82-7-1. Where are you guys ranking him? This content is protected
I'm going to say solid category. He was a lot different from Tiger in that he had a long amateur career and was an athletic boxer as opposed to the wrecking ball that was Dick Tiger. Because of his style, he didn't eat the type of shots that Tiger did and he would use his legs and smarts to not put himself in a bad spot. With that said, he had a solid chin and it was going to take a brutal puncher with finishing skills to get rid of him.
Got to be either solid or iron? Here's a question - why isn't his jaw iron? What makes it less than that? Is it Monzon that proved it wasn't iron? Or maybe Griffith?
An valid argument can certainly be made for Iron but I think he was just so defensively sound and was a guy that knew his limitations when it came to fighting toe to toe. If he fought like Tiger, I don't believe his chin would hold up. I think the low Ko percentage against him was more about his elusive style than his chin. Solid or Iron seems acceptable.
Benvenuti was down a handful of times at middleweight and stopped on three occasions as well. Was definitely hurt worse by Griffith than Tiger was. Not sure just how many big punchers he faced at the weight, either. Kinda think "solid" would be the ceiling for Nino.
What about Gennady Golovkin? 42-2-1 and never closed to being stopped, Golovkin is surely only either Iron or Titanium, how does the forum see it? This content is protected
While we are at it - what about Canelo Alvarez? An astounding 60-2-2 but not a lot of data up at MW, but he has been whaled on by a hellacious puncher in the form of Golovkin, to no effect. What's your view on Canelo's chin? This content is protected
While nobody is unstoppable given the right sequence of punches, yeah, Golovkin and Canelo have some of the two hardest chins I've ever seen at MW. I can't see how they can be improved upon. Golovkin landed a combo from hell on Canelo and buzzed him a bit. That's it. Twenty seconds later he was back in the fight. Canelo landed THAT haymaker on GGG and he barely blinked. Like WTF. I know for a fact that GGG trains his neck like a beast to make sure his head is super braced, and I bet Canelo does the same.