Stamina and chin as functions of technique

Totally agree, man. Keeping your chin down makes you that much harder to knock out.

If he didn't hang himself out, Hamed may never have been dropped.
Miguel Cotto used to fade late because of how tense he was early, and how bad his weight cut was.
Chris Byrd rolled from side to side and back with punches, taking a critical amount off of them that enabled him to take some powerful heavyweights best shots.

 

Look at Toney, some actually claim he has great stamina

 

I agree that chin is not only a physical attribute.
If you stand there shut your eyes and take a punch then it is probably a physical attribute only.

 

three things that aid a chin: smarts, heart and conditioning.

when people talk about the 'best chins', i tend to think about the attribute in isolation. in that sense, i think the ability to take a punch is something you're born with.

 

Agreed technically skilled fighters don't tire easily.
What do you think it is dependant on, goat15?

 

the reason technically skilled fighters don't tire easily?

probably because, most of the time, someone who has trained hard enough to hone their all-round technique, will have also put some thought into how to pace themselves and how to recover when in trouble.

fighters who have good technique (using the term in the broadest way here) are usually relatively economical with their movements too, both when throwing punches and evading them. i'd also say that they tend to land a higher percentage of their punches. missing over and over again is sapping, physically and mentally.

 

when i say smarts, i'm talking about ring generalship, concentration, technique etc.

my first response was pretty glib.

 

yeah. there's obviously a lot to it. would you say, though, that the fundamental ability to take a punch, removing all of these other factors, is something that you're born with?

 

i always thought that hagler, for example, just happened to have crazy bone density in his face, and head in general. of course he had all of the supporting attributes, but i reckon he would have been a pretty solid journeyman fighter if you had removed his other abilities, based on his chin alone.