Who had a better chin? Holmes or Holyfield?

I went with equal cuz it's so hard. No clear victor in this contest. Both men's careers are riddled with brutal wars. Holyfield was more prone to losing one, but I think that's cuz Holmes was a more shrewd fighter, nothing to do with durability.

Sadly, two of the toughest fighters of all time and few ever say it.

 

I'm confused by this. When has Holyfield ever not got his due? He's always been a fan favorite. Holmes was kind of **** on in his day, but in recent years has gained a lot of reconition.

As to chin between the two, I guess Holyfield? Holmes tried to avoid getting hit, while Holyfield was happy to brawl.

Heart? They both had it in spades.

Guts? Holyfield. Not sure who has ever had more than him. Who else had the balls to straight up brawl with Bowe, Tyson, AND Foreman when the opportunity presented? He feared no man. Ever. Crazy old man would probably hop into the ring with Wilder today if they'd let him, and up leaving dead but with a smile on his face.

 

Hard to say. Maybe Holyfield because he was naturally a 180-190 pound fighter and he managed to build himself up to heavyweight and take his tough chin up with him. Spinks and Moorer couldn't do it.

 

I'd say Evander .. he took bombs from Bowe, Tyson, Lewis and absorbed them .. He traded more than Larry and took far more shots .. both had incredible hearts and recooperative powers .. when Bowe stopped EWvander who knows what Evander was on that caused him to be so exhausted .. remember two rounds earlier he had Bowe out and could not finish him ..

 

Probably Holyfield, because Holmes guarded his better.

 

Holmes. I don't think Bowe landing flush would drop him, Bowe wasn't quite the puncher he's been made out to be (though he did have a very good shot, I don't quite put, say, his overhand right up there with Witherspoon's).

Had Shavers or Weaver landed flush on Holy, I think it would be very up in the air if Holy got up. I think at least in the case of Shavers Evander would have been out cold.

And this is coming from a HUGE Holy fan.

 

Holyfield could take single shots better. He ate murderous bombs from Cooper, Foreman, Bowe, etc and would fight right back. In contrast, Holmes got buzzed by guys like Witherspoon and Weaver and held on or ran to clear his head.

However I think Holmes had better recovery and survival skills that he probably learned working with Ali. Holyfield was often too brave for his own good and could have very leaky defense when he got nailed hard wanting to jump right back into the fight. Hoylfield got better at controlling this bad habit as he got tho.

 

It wasn't one punch Bowe dropped Hoylfield with, it was a non stop back and forth war that eventually led to the knock down due to built up damage. Holmes would never trade with Bowe for 12 rounds and if he did, he'd probably get dropped too.

As for the 3rd fight, we can give Holy the benefit of the doubt and assume he gassed trying to finish Bowe whilst suffering from the side effects of whatever he was taking.

 

This sounds most likely. Holmes would make Bowe look really bad, though he'd almost certainly make the distance.

 

Foreman landed a perfect straight right to Holyfield's jaw and he didn't go down.

If Foreman couldn't do it with a single shot, I doubt Shavers or Wilder could.

 

Larry by somewhere between "quite a margin" and "slightly" IMO.

 

A heretical suggestion:

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Shavers was weight trained. Maybe his power only seemed abnormal to his 70s contemporaries because they weren't accustomed to the kind of punching power that similar (but more developed) training would later produce consistently in the 90s-2000s contenders.

(Bonus heresy: Old George Foreman was a much harder hitter than Young George because he trained like other 90s fighters.)

 

Old George definitely carried a good bit more muscle mass than young George. You can tell from his arms. He definitely did some serious weight training.