I've noticed that there's no aspect of boxing more subject to insane overgeneralizations and unnecessary "bandwagon" beliefs than chin. Not sure what it is about chin that makes people spout off so prematurely and with so little factual basis, you don't see nearly as ignorant opinions on defense, power, etc. People make a determination on this early on in a fighters career, and then generally refuse to accept all subsequent evidence to the contrary. Wlad is the only HW champ in history to go 9 years as champ without a knockdown. Defense plays a role in that, but he's still taken quite a few big shots over those years and soaked them without going down. He's only been knocked down by 4 opponents in his career, that's the same number Ali was knocked down over a shorter career. He's faced all types and all sizes of fighters over that time. There are few active heavyweights who have not been knocked down, none of them have seen remotely the level of opposition that he has, there is significant empirical evidence that he has a very good chin, and none that he has a weak chin. At best, there's evidence that when he was a much younger fighter, he had chin problems. Chin is one of a fighters attributes that generally get better with age, at least until some point in the 40's. David Tua was brutally ko'd in the amatuers, before his chin developed, but since it happened outside of public consciousness, fans never imprinted on that and only saw his hard chin of his later career. To a lesser extent, this fan fiction is seen in fighters like Wilder and Fury. Neither has ever been knocked out as a pro. Wilder has only been knocked down once. Meanwhile he beat one of the hardest hitters in the HW's in Stiverne, went 12 rounds with him taking some big shots and never went down. I suspect if he fought Povetkin he would be ko'd, but only because Povetkin could exploit weaknesses in his game, not because of an inherent vulnerability of chin. Fury has been knocked down twice by lesser fighters heading into a world championship bout against a heavy hitter. People think this means he'll be easy prey for Wlad. It sounds very familiar to me as this is the situation Ali found himself in heading into his fight against Liston. At least fans of that era were able to eventually course correct, recognize they made an early, erroneous judgment and see him as an all time great chin later on. Unfortunately, that seems impossible for the fans of this era. Once they've made a decision about a fighters chin, there is absolutely no evidence that can make them change their mind. (And for the record, I do think Wlad ko's Fury, and that Fury probably has an average chin at best for a top contender, but my point is that its premature to judge with certainty and that its quite overstated)
Good post but even other professional boxers say other boxers have a week chin. Some folks can not take a punch and some do. Generally people know this, that's why they make the predictions they do.
Glass Jaws exist in Boxing and we WILL discuss them on here. A Chin is THE most important attribute for a boxer to have. Chan Talk is a huge cog in this websites success.
People really make early judgements about fighter's chins. Wlad only knocked down by big punchers(not sure about Williamson though) but Wilder and Fury was down against no hopers, they certainly haven't had better competition than Vitali or Valuev who has never been down. Though I do think people are being harsh on Wilder, both him and Fury have questionable chins.
Wilder has been shaken up many a time by smaller men and I *think* he was KO'd in AM's (someone correct me if wrong please) Stiverne is not one of the hardest hitting HWs either... Agree with rest of the post to an extent though
I'd like to add that the 1/2 dozen or so hard shots landed but Stiverne were cuffing and not followed by anything resembling a combination
I'd also like to add to the thread irt the cause of KDs, particularly when BIG men are dropped by the short quick handed in fighter. When a tall fighter let's the shorter man in, he's essentially begging to be dropped or even stopped. His arms have a further distance to go to block or parry a punch. He's typically less coordinated, so this compounds the problem even further. A couple combos against a tall thin built fighter like Wilder would probably be enough to end him early. Thus the BUMS RUSH is so frequently met with the jab and grab. And even the back peddling that we used to see the elder Klitschko employ. This isn't rocket science ppl. Yes.....glass jaws DO exist. But moreso, slow reaction defending is the cause of more KDs than glass jaws.
