But that's just it, Tyson faced MUCH better competition and MUCH bigger punchers and got hit MUCH more often than Vitali. The amount of big punches Vitali took cleanly throughout his career cumulatively might amount half the clean shots Iron Mike took in half of any of his fights against big punchers. I'll give you McCall and Mercer. Beyond abnormal, and they both got hit flush plenty from some flame throwers.
I already said he had a good chin , but its too untested to say its the best in history. Thats fanboy talk , plain and simple. Using Sanders as a reason debunks your whole argument since Rahman weathered a hell of a lot more punishment off Sanders than Vitali did. In fact bringing up an old untrained Sanders shows how far you have to reach to try prove your point.
Vitali had a good chin. He took Lennox's shots. He really didn't fight that many big and precise punchers.
Vitali got laid out cold by a D-Level Kickboxer. His chine might be iron in boxing, but in other combat sports it'd be mediocre.
I'm genuinely laughing out loud at that last comment! Mercer's chin was stupid. Holyfield also had an iron beard.
It's a bit overrated to me. He took some good shots in his time and was clearly a resilient heavy, but he didn't get hit flush that often so it's impossible to class him in the same bracket as a Mercer, Wach, or McCall. He was badly hurt against Lewis and Sanders but recovered well and tended not to wilt under pressure like his brother. I actually don't think there was as huge a gulf in punch resistance between the two as is commonly assumed. The difference came in mentality.
He had a granite chin. But I don't think his chin was up there with the very best chins in the history of the division. Mercer and McCall took Lewis uppercuts and right hands better than Vitali did. They barely flinched from Lewis' best, while Vitali had to hold on from that uppercut and that right hand when Lewis was on the ropes in the last round had Vitali holding on for dear life.
I don't recall that but I do Lewis was only saved from being knocked out in the first round by excessive holding.
Yeah Mavrovic had a ridiculous chin too, he wasn't just taking single shots but hard combinations and never looked seriously hurt.
It was strong but it wasn't often tested. His reputation for having an Iron Chin comes almost exclusively from the fight with Lennox Lewis because very rarely other than that did he ever get hit clean by a recognized puncher.
Getting kicked in the face is more devastating than getting punched. Also Pele Reid was a decent kickboxer.