Holyfield's punch resistance far better than Vitali's?

If I look at the facts then I see Holyfield gave Lewis tough fights for 2 x 12 rounds and Holyfield was never close to be knocked out or stopped by the ref. He had no dangerous swelling or cuts during and after the fight.

Vitali was only in the ring 25% of the rounds Holyfield was but his face looked like somebody unloaded a shotgun on him point blank. He was also seemingly rocked by some of Lewis' shots in the 5th and 6th round.

So is it fair to say Holyfield's punch resistance and durability is much better than Vitalis? I keep reading how Vitali has an 'ATG chin' but it seems he takes a lot of damage from shots when he does take them.

 

You answered your own question

Holyfield is a certified G

 

Yeah. In a sense Vitali is so tall and rangey that he doesn't get hit quite as often as a smaller HW like Holyfield did. In fact, probably hasn't got hit 1/10th as much as Holyfield did. Sometimes Vitali can get hit when leaning straight back from a punch which helps him absorb a shot better. Sanders seemed to legitimately drop him to me. At least Vitali looked hurt. I think his punch resistance is better than his brother but quite a bit overrated because he's a Super HW that hasn't been officially floored.

Mayweather hasn't either, but I wouldn't say he's more durable than Pac either. Of course to be fair, it's a much harder feat to achieve at HW.

 

That's the thing here. People bring up the fact that Vitali was never down in his pro career and take it as evidence that his chin and punch resistance are superhuman.

The problem with this theory is that we really don't know because Vitali doesn't get hit all that much. Holyfield on the other hand used his face as a punching bag; his brain damage we observe today is testament to that.

I remember Vitali's face was all swollen up by Kevin Johnson's jabs and a couple of straight rights from Lewis turned his facae into ground meat. It's not the punch resistance that's good, it's his use of height, reflexes and feints.

 

It's no secret that Holyfield could take a shot. As a smaller man, he could be hurt and put down...but he had a great chin

I don't think it's any secret that Vitali has a sturdy chin...

I personally feel it's a bit too close to try to point out who had a better chin...one could easily say that Holyfield has been down a few times and stopped while Vitali has never been down to a punch nor stopped...

It feels like a roundabout comparison...Holyfield had better defense than Vitali did vs Lennox in my opinion and boxed more with Lewis fighting a bit cautious himself in such a major and important unification bout...vs Vitali, Lewis simply fought his heart out as did Vitali with both men somewhat throwing caution to the wind...

Also to knock Vitali's chin for getting cut at his eye and swollen lips makes no sense to me.

The way Vitali and Holyfield fought Lewis were so different...Holyfield has proven his chin with all of the clean shots he has taken to compensate for his lack of size...he had to fight on the inside more and not take bullying from bigger men...Vitali didn't really have to fight as hard as Holyfield did due to his size and reach

They both have good chins..Holyfield's chin was just tested more because of how he had to fight and the competition he faced (Lewis, Tyson, Bowe, Mercer, Moore, Rahman, Ruiz, Holmes, Foreman, Dokes, Qawi, Valuev, etc)

 

Agreed. Vitali doesn't take the straight bombs Holyfield has walked through.

 

Vitali's chin as such is fine, but it seems whenever he gets hit by half a dozen punches his face swells up and he quickly develops grizzly cuts. I realize that 'a weak chin' is related to getting knocked down but deep cuts can lead to stoppages as well and that's where I see Vitali's weakness.

I can barely remember Holyfield ever being cut and he took 10x the punches Vitali took in his entire lifetime, including 3 x Bowe, 2 x Tyson & 2 x Lewis.

 

Yes deffly.

 

holys chin has been tested with some of the biggest punchers, so yeah i would say so.

 

What does something as arbitrary as a one-off cut have to do with punch resistance, especially as cutting an opponent has nothing to do with punch power?

The TS is either a troll or a moron. Going by history, he's both.

 

Not really a well thought out conclusion. Evander did a great job protecting himself against Lewis, though sadly at the expense of his own offense for long stretches. And nobody is going to abuse and cut late 90s Evander up in the clinch, not even Lewis who wisely used his body weight to just blanket Holyfield and neutralize the phone booth offense and dirty boxing that was so successful against Tyson and Moorer.

Vitali is prone to cuts, what you can say. Lewis sliced up Tyson as well, who was also pretty durable but prone to cuts and eye injuries. Meanwhile, I think Moorer was the only one that cut Holyfield in his long career. By your backwards logic, does that Moorer a stronger puncher than Lewis? Absolutely not. Vitali was a poor infighter, and Lewis was able to take advantage of that with short slicing punches.

 

you never saw holys face after the first fight I guess


either waytho Holys chin is tougher than vitali and lewis combined

 

Holyfield's punch resistance seems to get better or worse depending on whether or not he is in shape. I don't think he has to worry about being KO'd by Wlad or Vitali, but it's not the KO that does the damage it's the 12 rounds with them at his advanced age.

I think a young Holyfield takes the both of them. Wlad by KO and Vitali by outboxing him.

 

Holyfield faced the way, WAY better competition throughout his career and while getting dropped a couple of times, he stood up to almost any hard hitter. Vitali was clearly hurt by Lennox and was shaken quite considerably by Sanders - the two hardest punchers he faced.

I genuinely believe no HW in history would get through Holyfield's resume without getting knocked down at some point.

 

I'd say Moorer probably is a stronger puncher than Lewis if you go by KO percentage. Moorer is one of the hardest punchers in boxing history P4P.

I think Lewis seemed to punch harder because he would TKO guys with combination punching while Moorer had enough power to end anyone with one punch. I think Moorer had greater ability to hurt Holyfield than Lewis but I think Lewis because of his size and ability to tire fighters out would wear you down and eventually knock you out, similar to what Vitali does so that it seems as if he is just brutally KOing people.

Tyson and Moorer were KOing people. The other fighter could be ahead on points, and Tyson or Moorer could land one punch and the fight would be over.