Jake LaMotta and Marvin Hagler. SRR said that punching Lamotta was like punching a brick wall. Fritzie Zivic said you could hit Jake all you wanted you just couldn't hurt the son of a *****. And we all know Hagler had an ATG chin. Down only once in his career and that was an off balance shot. No MW in history could stop either one of them. But which one would vote as the toughest MW of all time?
Are we talking just chin or durability? Regardless I'd say Jake was more proven. He was beaten to a pulp by an ATG LHW puncher in Lloyd Marshall and wasn't dropped or stopped.
Uhh more like a lot of the better middles never fought LaMotta. The guy was avoided as hell to the point he had to actually promote his own bouts just to get dates. To pretend his lack of competition (and I say that with reservation as his resume is still deep and impressive) is because he was avoiding people is ridiculous. As for him not fighting a huge puncher atsch Bob Satterfield... nuff said. Lausse never saw a day in his career that he hit harder than Satterfield who LaMotta absorbed punches from and then stopped.
Even thou my favorite all time fighter is Hagler, i give a slight edge to Jake, he had a lot more fights than Marv, and fought in an era with less regulations, and more brutality, back in the 40's and 50's some guys were nearly dead before they stopped a fight, all fights were 15 rounds, towards the end of Haglers career they only went 12... That being said Lamotta had to go thru a lot more bull**** to get to the title, and took a lot more punishment than Hagler did...
How does one define toughness ? The ability to take a punch against your weight class ? Or the ability to take whatever your opponent of heavier weight classes throws at you time and time again and survive any of your larger opponents onslaughts and survive and PROSPER ? This last question properly answered calls for the toughest middleweight in boxings annals brings to mind none other than Harry Greb, who aside from a ko in his fight when he was a novice, was NEVER ko'd in about 280 bouts AFTER, against every fighter of his weight or larger, regardless of colour, style, and get this afficionodos of boxing, BLIND in one eye for the last few years of his stunning career. Truly Greb was the toughest middleweight ever...
What is the definition of toughness here? Guys like Ketchel,Thomas,Papke,Greb,O Dowd,Ratner,Walker were all tough boys.