I haven't seen BHop get hit with as many hard punches as Oscar and keep throwing without backing away as though they're nothing. ..but that's a compliment too for BHop.
James Toney although he has been down I only recall him being rattled once. Going all the way up to heavyweight and never being ko'ed at his age is nothing short of amazing.
of that list its Provo is proven the toughest chin followed by GGG as he apparently has not been dropped ever. Marg and Morales got KO'd viscously although both by serious punchers so they should both get a pass/props. Marquez and De La Hoya should have been on this poll as they are some tough SOB's, tough as nails and recovered from knock downs almost instantly. if the SMW division had tougher guys at the time when Froch was considered in the top 3 he would not be on this list imo, Taylor dropped him and almost had him out, it took him ages to recover, Groves dropped him bad with punch that was thrown from barley a foots distance and he didn't recover until mid way through the fight. he's lucky the smw division wasn't filled with talented finishers
Matthysse is in my opinion the hardest puncher in boxing and is at least one of the hardest. He did box and didn't commit so much vs Provodnikov, but still landed some of the bombs that knocked out Peterson and so many others. Provo's chin is legit concrete. The comparison should come down to what guys who were never hurt or knocked out took clean punches by the harder punchers. Toney and Hopkins had great defence and avoided getting hit cleanly. When can you recall either getting hit square on the chin by a hard puncher with no effect? Mayorga I think managed to take punches that he could see, but when he was touched right by hooks he couldn't see coming by both Tito and Oscar he was badly hurt and out of it. Oscar was knocked down against Quartey, but that was a well-timed shot as Oscar was coming in and while he was stunned wasn't too badly hurt. He took some hard shots against a lot of other guys and kept fighting, but other than Tito did he face an A level puncher? I don't really think so. I think Mosley's chin was a bit better. He took as many clean punches from Oscar as he gave, and Oscar's the harder puncher. It was an uppercut from hell with all his weight behind it that Forrest knocked him down with, and that he got up and lasted 12 shows how solid his chin was. And past his prime he wasn't hurt and lasted 12 despite taking a beating against a big, strong young puncher in Canelo.
Good post. This whole thinking that because a fighter gets stopped thus his chin is not granite is BS. Everybody gets stopped if they take enough hard punches. Even Hagler for example if he took too many more Hearns bombs gets stopped. He didn't though, he got Hearns out of there and crowded him. The point remains though.
I didn't include Hopkins on the list nor Toney. Because they were more 90s fighters than 2000s fighters. And there chins are somewhat untested due to their style and skills. DLH same thing. Is half 90s, half 2000s. All the fighters on this list had all their biggest fights after 2000.
I thought about Marquez, but left him off the list. The thing is he was too easily dropped by Pacquiao. Yes Morales was even finished by Pacquiao. But Morales took more punishment from Pac than Marquez. Especially in the body. Marquez due to his style and skills almost never took flush hard shots. Even the the Pac bombs were not full extention shots and Pac was rarely able to follow it up with combos. And Marquez rarely if ever walked through and walked down people. When he was hit he retreated and recalibrated his attack. Whereas Morales would just walk though you and keep firing.