A fighter's chin.

It's probably a combination of all this stuff among others.

I do remember Wayne McCullough saying that the reason he had a great chin was that when he was hit he made a choice whether to go down or not. And he always chose not to. And to me that's grandstanding. If somebody like Manny Pac or Little Red landed on that chin flush a couple times he's going the hell down. I don't give a **** how tough you think you are.

If the right puncher buzzes your tower you don't make the decision to not go down. You do go down, there isn't much you can do, the legs go, the brain rattles and you go down. Now a body punch is different. That has more to do with pain tolerance than getting punched in the head. But there is only so much pain anybody can take. I remember Martin Murray (renowned for his toughness) said that when GGG hit him flush to the body with a power punch he tried to ride it out. He wanted to, but in the end the pain was just too much and he had to take a knee.

 

I think Ronald had his dad`s thin legs which someone stated on the thread was why Hearns got knocked out by Barkley in their first fight and why after Hearns built up his legs at light heavy could take more punches off of Barkley for 12 rounds in their rematch, Floyd used to lift weights using his neck muscles by attaching the weights to his head and lifting the neck then absorbs power by reducing the snap of the head`s sudden jolt as it is hit.

 

The ideal fighters physique is a solid, but not overly muscular base. Just strong legs. A wide back, thick neck, powerful shoulders, almost non existent chest and long string bean arms.

 

I'm not an expert, and I'm sure somebody will explain this better after I do, but it's to do with nerve connections. If the nerve signals to your brain are interrupted, then your brain momentarily can't give instructions to your body, so you'll flop like a wet tissue. A big punch to the chin reverberates, and can briefly interrupt the connection. A large chin, or maybe dense skull bone, can soak up more of the punch's force, thus putting less stress on your nerves. This is why keeping your chin in helps - your head will be rocked less if you do it, so there is less stress on your nerves. But it does still seem mysterious to a degree - Naseem Hamed didn't look like he could take a punch, but I don't remember seeing him go down.

So as far as inheritance goes, I suppose dense bone begets dense bone, etc., and I don't think "heart" has much to do with going down (though it does affect whether you get up or not), but why two similarly-built fighters should react differently to a flush hook to the jaw, I don't know. Look forward to better-informed replies.

 

That's all well and good, but there are levels to punchers and I do believe it's a grandstanding from Wayne. While Morales was a very hard puncher Marquez hit harder and Manny Pac and Hamed definitely punched harder. There is nobody who can make a choice to not go down to infinity. At some point the punch lands with too much force. He just never got hit by one hard enough.

 

To find any account I'm aware of that's more than say George Chuvalo's personal or Jack Dempsey's personal tricks of boxers actually training their ability to take damage on a large scale, that is to say with the belief any boxer can gain from it not just those born with a natural competence, I have to go all the way back to pre Olympia. Ancient historians are quoted in claiming that the Spartans created boxing. It was a war tactic and one of the sole intentions of this early form of boxing was to increase their ability to take damage.

If you cross reference this with accounts from wars dealing with these boxing spartan soldiers you'll find (A) They wore no helmets as they thought them for sissies, and (B) they could take period specific weapons direct to the dome and continue to fight. That's swords, cudgels, axes, etc. and not only did they not die, they weren't even knocked out, reportedly they were able to continue slaughtering their enemies. A by period specific I mean a spartan could not handle steel, but ****, taking a bronze axe to the face and the face denting the axe is pretty ****in' impressive to this mook right here.

After that it's like I alluded to at the start, you've individual accounts like Ali training to take more body shots pre Foreman, but those accounts don't suggest that any man can do this.

I actually make prosthetics for a living. There are a few things I can say for sure; if most parts of the body receives repeated trauma the body is going to look to harden and remove nerves. edit- alright, one thing for sure. Turns out my professional opinion means next to dick actually.

These things have me inclined to believe despite my instincts that chin is entirely trainable. Even the softest could be tough as nails, he'd probably have brain trauma issues and might lose touch with reality, but he'd have chin...I think, maybe.

 

A lot of it has to do with something that is often overlooked. David Price has a tiny little head. This factors in a great deal.

Roy Jones Jr. has a tiny little head...i could go on...

 

The theory that Hearns had a weak chin is not true. He took Leonard and Haglers punches. He was knocked out, but he took more punches than most guys can take with weak chins.. It was not dependable.

 

I think it is more body type and how it absorbs the blow.

 

Thick skulls. People get knocked out when the brain smacks against the skull usually. I've been knocked out 3 times in my life.
* I was a kid and my sister shouted me, I turned around and listened to what she said, turned back around and walked directly into a hanging bin.
* 2nd time was identical to the above one, except it was a lamppost this time when doing the paper delivery.
* My friends thought it would be a good idea to absale from a tree to a lamppost, using nothing but handlebars and a rope. Bad idea, as when they pulled on the rope I lost my grip and fell on my head.

Moral of the story, don't get KTFO I guess.

 

Vitali didn't come close to having one of the greatest chins ever. He was probably one of the 5 most efficient HW's - at least in the last 50-60 years, and he had far more fight in him than his brother when he got dragged into a fight.

So many factors go into this it's probably impossible to list them all. As others have said, bone density, build, neck muscles, a fighter's gameness, I mean the list just goes on. When you get knocked out there is an electrical and oxygen interruption occurring in the spinal column. When you get put spark out, your ability to fight just got taken out of your control. Nothing you can do. Build plays a factor. Taller and lankier fighters are more prone to getting KO'd than shorter fighters with stockier builds. The higher up your chin is the more natural leverage a shorter fighter can generate into shots on the button. But there are always exceptions to these factors, there are always fighters that can just take shots, regardless of how many seeming strikes they have against them.

More than anything though, like everything else in life, necessity dictates. The fighters who have ATG chins are usually far less gifted tahn most fighters. For them to even be competitive they NEED to be able to absorb all hell. Resilience and toughness - mental, emotional and physical - are almost always the product of repeatedly having to get back up from failure or knowing evolution is going to leave them behind if they can't "soldier on" through whatever life throws at them. Fighters from certain nationalities tend to have better chins than others. Take the Irish for example, Irish fighters are usually knwn for their chins and toughness. They NEED to be tough. To be Irish is to be tough, just think of the hangovers they have to deal with every day. Wlad Klitschko never NEEDED to be tough, have a good chin, or show resilience.

After WWI, the Germans went home humiliated and got to the drawing board. No more trench warfare and no more embarrassment. They came up with the most brilliant conventional infantry and armored brigades ever seen. Conversely the British - as the British do - went home and partied and got drunk. The French went home and designed the first ever tampons - solely for themselves, and soon they would need them. WWII comes along and holy christ the Germans went beserk. French kicked it in because they are pu**ies. The UK took it on the chin. Out of necessity Brits are usually either very smart or very tough. They got their a**es kicked for years. The SAS - the world's first special forces - were born out of necessity. They couldn't come close to matching the Germans conventionally, so they were going to beat them unconventionally.

Goddamn I hate being a mental midget. I just read a post from navigator on Margarito and his wraps and got so envious. I'm a stone cold ******, and truly wish I could articulate my thoughts half as good as some of the posters here. I try, but in the end my masterpieces end up looking like literary vomit.

What I'm trying to say is this - so many factors go into this it's impossible to truly tell. But one factor goes above and beyond any other, and it's necessity. If you consistently NEED to have a great chin and be a punching bag until fighters gas, usually you will have it. You're mind is like a muscle too, the more you HAVE to deal with in life the tougher and more resilient you will be. Obviously my mind isn't much of a muscle, more like a minging French pu**y, so I'm pretty taxed and cashed out right now. You won't believe the difficulty I just had to endure to puke this up.

 

Some old school fighters thought one could improve the ability to take a punch by chewing various tough things. Whether that's true or not, I'll take a pass on.

Not tucking the chin can lead to having a glass jaw.

Conditioning helps tremendously got to keep blocking or moving out of the way.

Some people claim how the teeth fit together has a lot to do with how stout of a mandible you have. I'm not for sure on that one either.