Chin, recuperative powers and heart

I can’t believe we got to page 3 until Saad was brought up! Yeah, he genuinely fits all three categories.

 

It’s a very good example.

 

Wilfredo Gomez - average chin, average recuperative abilities, great heart.

Maybe that’s a bit of a harsh assessment but the point is that his will to continue was always there, he just didn’t always have that ability.

The Yum fight he admitted that after the first round KD, he was in a fog for the next few rounds. His performance bears this out as he took some time to get his legs back. Once he did, he boxed really well and came back to win.

The Sanchez fight he was dropped in round 1 as well and his legs were all over the place for some time. Again, he managed to fight his way back into it but never fully recovered and was memorably battered half-through the ropes by Sanchez.

The Nelson fight he got properly poleaxed in the follow up knockdown.

In none of those fights did he ever come close to quitting, he was just taking out by Sanchez and Nelson.

It was his chin and ability to recover that came up short, not his will to continue.

 

Exactly right, John.

Tommy Hearns never showed a lack of desire to continue, he just didn’t have the same ability to recover as some fighters. It’s pretty rare that a fighter goes down hard and then gets back up and is seemingly the same as before he went down - that’s a rare ability and Tommy wasn’t deficient in that sense, he just wasn’t able to shake off the effects like some fighters. That durability was something that he didn’t have in the same way as a Larry Holmes or a Muhammad Ali.

As he got more experienced, he learnt how to cope better with it (by actually holding) and, to his credit, he did manage to fight back on several occasions after being rocked or badly hurt against Roldan, Kinchen and Leonard in the rematch. However, the images of him getting knocked out by Hagler and Barkley are as indelible as the one of him flattening Duran (btw who I’d rate as ‘great’ chin, ‘good’ recuperative abilities, generally ‘good’ heart - minus one infamous example) and tend to overshadow those cases where he found a way to survive.

But those cases where he survived were a great reflection of his heart and increased experience in the face of his natural limitations in that area. He was the hit man, but never the quit man!

 

Rate the following fighters (or fighters of your own choosing) on the three criteria - chin, recuperative powers, heart - with a rating of ‘poor’, ‘average’, ‘good’, ‘great’ for each category.

Roberto Duran
Chin =
Recuperative powers =
Heart =

Thomas Hearns
Chin =
Recuperative powers =
Heart =

Muhammad Ali
Chin =
Recuperative powers =
Heart =

Larry Holmes
Chin =
Recuperative powers =
Heart =