His chin has always been top class He took a lot of punishment in his losses vs Douglas and holyfield too You only have to see his 2 fights with Razor to see how sturdy his chin really was Mike definitely could take a shot and he for sure showed heart and toughess against lewis. Sadly that was all he showed at that stage
His fights with douglas, ruddock, holyfield and lewis were insanity. He took so much punishment and its amazing that he isnt worse off right now.
I've always felt like he knew he was going to lose that fight and wanted to take a beating as some kind of redemption
I think it was more so to go out on his shield vs. taking a beating but I think you are absolutely correct about the redemption.
Mike may have the best chin of any fighter I've ever seen that has lost every fight by ko/tko. Despite his losses, there are very few questions about his chin that pop up. In his losses, his chin has almost always held steady (until the end). It's almost always a punishment accumulation that does him in. And considering the fact that Mike is really a giant LHW, it makes it all the more amazing.
You need to watch that round again, toward the end Bonecrusher nailed him and he does a little stiff legged jig and he's obviously hurt. He should have opened up earlier.