Top 5 ATG Heavyweight chins?

In regards to Purrity, he employed a high guard/ear muff type defense... Imagine a heavyweight Ronald Wright, Lamont Peterson type. That oddball but effective defense combined with his iron chin made him a nightmare to fight. He gave several name heavyweights real problems.

 

How about Evander?

 

wow, he had one great chin!!

 

With Evander it's a case of solid chin with elite level level recovery. He had that rare type of ability to rally when hurt, almost fight more effectively perhaps. Think Steve Cunningham, Nigel Benn, Juan Manual Marqez.

That's just as rare as a truly great chin.... the ability to recover if hurt.

 

I was really surprised to see those shots Evander took from Bowe in their first match up. He took some real heavy shots and yet, manage to fire some back of his own. Most people including me would be dead by any one or two of those Bowe power shots.

 

McCall
Tex cobb
Mercer
Holy
Mason

 

Ali was never TkOd and fought some of the Hardest hitting Heavyweights ever...can't believe hardly any one mentions Him.!!!!

 

Off the top of my head, I' say McCall, Chuvalo, Cobb, Ali and Vitali. Ali had incredible powers of recovery after being hurt, which I'm factoring in.

 

Any list without Holyfield is poor at best.

 

Only looked at the first page and guessed McCall would be on it but hadnt seen anyone note Zeljko Mavrovic who took flush shots from L Lewis without going down

 

What's so bad about it? You've hurt my feelings there, mate.

 

Two questions Id personally ask myself before posting ATG heavyweight chins.

1. Has my fighter ever lost by KO or TKO? Or even knocked down at all, win or lose? There are fighters that have never lost by KO and this thread is about chins not about their boxing ability, surely. Some of the best chins believe it or not may belong to those who were never really that good at boxing but boxed and endured.
2. Have they fought quality opposition? If your fighter has never been knocked out, you go to consider this. Also got to consider how many shots they wore against top opposition. Look at it this way, you go 12 rounds with a prime Mike Tyson and you lost every round convincingly by receiving a beating but you show the reff your ok each round. Thats respect, thats a chin.

 

Vitali Klitschko
Rocky Marciano
Mariusz Wach

 

cobb - punching bag for holmes, went dancing with his wife after the fight
wach - punching bag for wladimir and looked like he didnt care, roids or not he took punishment that should have killed most people
mccall - took bombs from lewis like it was a light tap, sparred with tyson and never got knocked down once
chuvalo - foreman says it all
vitali - took so much punishment from Lewis, that one uppercut would have knocked most other heavyweights out. took more bombs from sanders, was hurt a bit but kept on going, slip or not sanders was a puncher

notable mention for briggs, the punishment he took from vitali would have killed most boxers 3 times over.

 

This is some excellent chin analysis. These are important factors to consider. It is precisely because of his quality of oppostion, and never having been off his feet, that I rate Chuvalo at #1. McCall is only a tad lower because his opposition isn't quite as good.