Very good post. But my answer is no. However, only the freaks of punch resistance are clearly above him, Cobb, Toney, LaMotta, McCall, etc.
haha you gotta love tex cobb...who kicked cossell out of the fight game with that ****ing performance against holmes. i've never seen anyone so unresponsive to constant punishment. It was like he was putting his grocery list together in his head while larry is pounding a way.
I put Lewis well above Frazier and I would suggest that with his right-hand he rivals anyone in history, in terms of raw power.
Ali tooks bombs from Shavers and Lyle when he was way past his best. Both of them fighters have pretty much equal if not superior raw power than Lennox Lewis, although I would like to credit Tyson with a great beard also.
It is very subjective to be honest. Against Douglas Tyson was literally throwing his body into right-hands for 10 rounds. Against Lewis he was hit with right-hands all night, and I do consider Lewis to be one of the hardest hitters of all time, though I cannot prove it. Tyson talked about chins in a relatively recent interview and I think he nailed it. He explained that not all hard punches are equal, even when landed in a danger area. Sometimes they go with little force and sometimes they do the chicken dance. Look at Ali getting floored by Cooper. Having seen the punishment he took from Foreman who would have guessed it? Meh. I'll stick with the short heavies with the thick necks. I even maintain that Vitali can be knocked cold by a single shot.
Morales?? what about Hamed? Nobody punched like the Prince.Wayne told me that himself. Carmen Basilio deserves a mention here tone of the toughest guys ever. Tex Cobb had a head like concrete. Dwight Qawi too. And of course Joe Grimm.He was a freak.
McCall may have had a better chin than Ali but the argument against that is Ali fought against loads of very very heavy handed fighters (which have already been mentioned) and didn't get knocked out etc. McCall took some big digs aswell but knowhere near the amount or calibre that Ali faced (bar perhaps Lennox Lewis). For me, George Chuvalo gets the nod but the likes of Ali & La Motta are up there.
:goodGreat post. and this is my big argument with McCall: sure he has an AWESOME chin but much like Vitali, who has really tested it? He fought ONE great hitter in Lewis, that's it. Ali found the best. But McCall does have one of the best beards of all time and maybe the best of the 90s which featured Tua and Mercer (though I put Mercer ahead)
haha, yeah the prince certainly hit harder and Wayne took his bombs with great aplomb. there was an article on espn on greatest chins and wayne was interviewed saying though his beard was great, for him it was 90% mental
very good, objective post :good thanks for the terrific insight as much as i like vitali (i am a klit fan) his chin can be a TOUCH overrated on here. The two best punchers he's faced, sanders and lewis (no, sam peter doesn't count) really rocked him hard. Lewis can be understood as he's a phenomenal puncher but Sanders had him on ***** street and he's not anywhere near the top 100