As a middleweight, Toney fought Sosa, Nunn, McCallum (1 knockdown- Reggie Johnson) As a super middleweight, Toney fought McCallum, Barkley, Jones, Williams (1 knockdown- RJJ) As a cruiserweight, Toney fought Jirov, Lebedev, McCallum (0 knockdowns) As a heavyweight, Toney fought Holyfield, Peter, Rahman, Oquendo, Ruiz, Browne (1 knockdown- Sam Peter; off-balance) Toney went 196 rounds against these fighters. I consider all these guys good/great punchers. Peter weighed 257 lbs for their first fight (100 lbs north of middleweight). Peter was in his prime and he was one of the biggest punchers in the world. Toney was washed up and he went 24 rounds against Peter. In your opinion, who possessed the greatest chin in boxing history (if not Toney)?
I remember playing fight night champion. They had Teddy Atlas doing commentary and he made a good point "i cant tell if he has a really good chin or he just has very good defense" I feel this is relevant when discussing fighters like Toney who rely on superb reflexes, anticipation, and defense. No doubt Toney obviously had a good chin since he was never KOd in over 90 professional fights across multiple weight classes. But its not like he was some face forward slugger who ate punches for breakfast. Even when he was nailed with a power punch, Toney was so slick he would roll with them instinctively even when seemingly off guard. And rarely was anyone able to follow up and land a full sequence or combination on toney for very long. Compare his style to someone like Tex Cobb who didnt have 10% of Toney's skills or defense and its harder to argue that Toney had the better chin between them.
He's in the discussion for sure. I like Jake La Motta as my number one, while his skill is sometimes underrated, he is inferior to guys like Hagler, Toney, Ali... who while all possessing solid chins had better tools to avoid some of the punishment Jake took.
This is a fair assessment. And from this I would extrapolate that James Toney would be a hell of a lot harder to KO than Tex Cobb. Or any other Heavyweight. Anybody with a better chin had worse defense, anybody with a better defense had a lesser chin. James may very well be the most durable fighter in boxing history. You just can't KO him. Combined with his hand speed, I think he punches way above his weight H2H. I think 230lb James Toney, performs surgery on a Prime Foreman. Too fast, too good, too durable.The way Toney picked apart Iran Barkley. That said I am an avowed Toney nuthugger but I'd challenge anybody to tell me why that is an unreasonable opinion based on the facts of the men. Stylistically I think James might take George apart over the distance.
That reminds me of something Larry Merchant once said - 'It's a virtue to take a punch, but it's not a virtue to take too many of them.'
Yeah, as a pure granite 'couldn't knock me down' type chin, Chuvalo may be no. 1. He still got stopped twice though. A great chin with no real defensive ability can still put a blemish on your record: 18 defeats, 2 by TKO. Compare that to Kid Gavilan who actually got dropped but was never stopped: 30 defeats, 0 by KO/TKO.
The thing I love about James Toney is I consider him a throw back fighter. He just fought 2 years ago, is still only 50 years old, and he has 90 pro fights. 90 fights in this era, that's unheard of.
I don't know if he has the best chin of all time or how something like that can be judged but I do know that aside from being one of the best defensive fighters ever he was tough as nails. I can't recall ever seeing him truly hurt or rocked in a fight. Nearly 30 year pro career fighting from 160 to heavyweight without ever being stopped is remarkable. The man tore his bicep early in his fight against Rydell Booker and fought on with one arm and tons of pain. No dog in JT at all.
Marvin Hagler. The punches he took against Hearns and Mugabi and anyone else really. He would be hit and just keep fighting.. He would be rocked like with Hearns, but he kept coming. And he did it on the biggest stage and in winning situations.. If you watch Rocky on TV those were punches people just don't take. in reality boxing is different than Rocky.
He had a great chin and an indomitable will. Had he boxed on past the Leonard fight, he may not have had quite that same durability as the will to take that kind of punishment wouldn't have been quite the same. But as chins go, p4p I can't think of any better.
