ATG Middleweight Chin Tier list-The Top Forty

McCallum comfortably made titanium so there's no way Monzon could miss out. From memory he was dropped in a very early fight and jumped straight back up after Valdez hit him as hard as he possibly could have. Monzon is transferring his weight forward into his own punch as Valdez gets full leverage into his booming right hand and catches him spectacularly. Monzon is springing back up almost before he hits the canvas with his hands high showing he's not hurt and wanting to immediately resume. Tho he went down it's actually an impressive show of durability and recovery. Realistically the worst we have on him is getting solidly hurt by Briscoe but Briscoe is a pretty big puncher and Monzon weathered it well. He had multiple fights with prime Briscoe and Valdez so there's some pretty good tests right there. Titanium for me and on top of that his leathery skin just doesn't seem to cut.

We saw what a Valdez right hand did to Briscoe and excepting that one moment Briscoe would probably be titanium.

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If Monzon makes titanium, he's got the worst chin in it IMO.

 

I couldn't subscribe to that opinion until I'd observed each of the other 'Titaniumees' face the 'Valdez Test'.

 

So out of the given candidates, who would you say Monzon has a better chin than?

 

Might just be from a difference in style. Hagler would have stepped back, keep his balance and collect himself before getting back to it. Like against Mugabi.

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He got hit with a right hand while trying to throw his own right uppercut. There are few counterpunches worse than that.

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Monzon always looked funky, even when he was fine.

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I couldn't possibly put McCallums chin above him out of those we already have.

 

Of the three, Greb is the only one who suffered KO defeats, even though the only proper KO took place very early in his career and when Greb himself was inside the welter limit, according to Boxrec, but his opponent, Joe Chip, was a middleweight.

 

The lines are really quite fine, but there is no clear reason to consider Monzon's chin to be the worst of those in the 'Titanium' class.

I had no hesitation giving McCallum's chin a 'Titanium' rating, but he did show some signs of vulnerability at 154 and 160, so I would not necessarily rate his chin above Monzon's.


For some context, I think we can look at Hagler on the other end of the scale, compare him with Monzon and give an edge to the former, based on opposition, the action and results. Hagler simply didn't waver, even against the biggest punchers he faced.

But, as has been pointed out by @JohnThomas1, Monzon took a clean right-hand from Valdez and was able to recover extremely quickly from the ensuing KD, which was effectively a flash-knockdown.

Did Toney recover as well from his KD at the hands of Johnson?
How many effective punchers has Golovkin faced at 160?
To what extent was Conn tested at 160?

We don't have footage of either Greb or Lytell and so have to rely on their records, but we can't actually observe how they handled adversity. Thus, to some extent, they get a pass on anything that might have hinted at their susceptibility.

I'm not convinced that, other than Hagler (and maybe Tiger), the punch Monzon took from Valdez would have been handled so well by the others.


Just my take.

 

Have you guys evaluated Marcel Thil yet?

 

They are all in the second post of the thread Mac. The Grain is updating them as it's decided.

 

Iron. He seemed to have a good chin most of the time and maybe his slickness meant he didn’t get caught as often as others…

…but a bit like Emile Griffith he has that one anomalous result on his ledger, and against a guy who didn’t usually have dynamite in his hands.

I don’t think he can realistically rank higher but maybe I’m being too harsh? I mean, if he’d been flattened by a Valdez or a Hearns or someone with known power then I could look the other way, but Michael Nunn? Hard to overlook it completely…

He was down twice against Kalule too, who wasn’t exactly Julian Jackson in the power department, either.

Yeah, I think iron is a very fair appraisal the more I think about it.