Boxers whose chins have improved considerably

Miguel Cotto, Terry Norris

 

Amir Khan?

 

Time will tell, although a lot of people think he's got one of the worst chins in boxing.

His chin hasn't been tested since he got knocked out.

 

It doesn't come down to luck. In cases where a chin has improved it's all down to conditioning and the manner in which a punch is taken (although technically this doesn't improve a fighters chin it can give that impression), which luck plays no part in determining.

Boxers like Pacquiao, who move through the weights, chose (or are forced) to give up size advantages in order to benefit from other advantages such as improved durability and strength.

Every body, boxer or otherwise, has experienced being seriously ill, food deprived and dehydrated. When you feel like this you feel weak. It is the same for a boxer who has to shed more weight than they should . . .their chins become weak.

That said, you did recognise this so back to your question (minus the 'luck' part) . . .

Khan has shown signs of improved resistance recently (Kotelnik fight) as has David Haye.

 

He's not been hit with anything serious at LWW yet. Kotelnic wasn't a puncher and Salita didn't get a chance to land anything!
That said I don't expect him to get KTFO by the next guy he fights who can actually hit. Simply because he looks a much better fighter now than the lightweight version and I don't expect many lesser skilled, slower fighters to land much. But I'd assume his chins still garbage.

 

Kotelnik might not have been the biggest puncher in the world but then neither were Limond or Drilzane. Roach has been telling anyone that will listen that Khan has been taking heavy shots in sparring and seems very confident that his weak chin is no longer an issue.

When Khan was guilty of being knocked down in the past he was a completely different boxer. Didn't know how to absorb a punch and was so top heavy it was ridiculous. Freddie's improved his defense and changed his body shape so that he is better equipped to take punches.

 

Lennox Lewis improved his chin during his career and he took so many big shots right on the chin against Vitali, I don't believe he would have done that in the early part of his career.

 

I still don't see that as luck, more an unwise decision for fighters to boil down in weight, if their defence allowed for them to be caught cleanly, in the first place. The ones whose chins never change I guess could be branded unlucky, just as I guess that a fighter who, regardless of weight, has a good chin could be referred to as lucky but no more so than a fighter who is blessed with blinding reflexes.

. . . I get your point though.

 

I was never sure about Lennox. I think part of it could have been down to his preparations for a fight. If he took a fight slightly less seriously than he should he seemed more cautious about being hit on the chin (he perhaps knew he would get the desired result against lesser opposition anyway even if he took his time). When he was in a big fight that he'd prepared properly for he would go to war to make sure he got the outcome and respect he deserved.

 

I think Khan can improve punch resistence significantly, PacMan is the finest example to that. Khan had extremely thin legs with too much upper body muscle mass and little head movement/slipping punches. He also badly drained himself to make weight, not only before weigh-in, but he kept his weight down between fights too much.

Just think about this: between 18 and 22 years of age, he did not grow out his starting division (140), in fact, he went DOWN to 135 for a couple of years and now moved back to LWW, while at that age period Pacquiao grew out 3, De La Hoya 2, Chavez Jr. 4(!) weight divisions.

IMO the weight of his naturally growing body was wrongfully kept down, and given the still very thin legs and losing weight even to make 140, welterweight should be his natural class at 23-25. With that said, it's a known and more and more visible fact that Roach and Ariza are moving muscle mass from upper body to the legs (wise decision), 140 is much more comfortable anyway, and Amir is learning how to minimize damage with new defensive techniques. So I think he can take a much bigger punch right now, and I think growing into higher classes with proper nutrition will only help him more. There are many examples of this.

However, if at some point he's going to take insanely clean LMW punches, it will be the time I'm seriously going to think there's something fishy in Roach's camp.

 

Miguel angel Gonzalez was repeatdley hurt as a lightweight. When he was a Junior Welter and Welterweight he had an Iron chin(probably drained at Lw) He easily soaked up Chavez,Delahoya,and Kostya best shots, not to mention Collazo at Welter,he might have been stopped but that wasnt cause of his chin. He was soaking up the best that the naturally bigger Collazo and hard punching Tszyu could give.

Manny also hes shown an excellent chin,but I remember Larios and SOlis rocking him,and Now Cotto shots dont even phase him.

Oscar is another one earlier in his career i remember Campanella,and Narciso Valenzuela dropping him, Campanella hurt him! We all know that Oscar ended up having an an excellent chin

 

Pac chin was already incredible for the JMM fights. I was impressed he never went down in those fights because he took some hard very accurate punches sometimes when he was off-balance. Oscar is a good example I think he had a similar problem like Khan his legs were very thin at the lower weights but for the Mosley fight he had his iron chin already and took an incredible number of shots. Cotto is a good example. Generally fighters improve their chin when they were drained before and move to a more comfortable weight class.