Could Young George take the shots and muscle people around like Old George did?

Yes...but Evander himself said he was out on his feet three times. At the end of the 10th he went back and asked his corner if all his teeth were knocked out.

It was still a competitive fight, Holy was just starting to peak though.

 

You cannot indeed. But you have to take into account 2 things:

1. Foreman had a 10 year hiatus before he returned to boxing. That is a huge amount of time that was more than enough to heal all the trauma his body ever received from boxing. In a nutshell, he was fresh as a daisy when he came back.

2. Old Foreman weighed an extra 30 lbs on average. This extra weight made him a lot stronger when it came to pushing or shoving opponents and it improved his durability, cause he could stand his ground better and the extra muscle and fat tissue helped him absorb punches better.

 

Neither of these things would have improved his ability to take a punch.

The idea that his chin was somehow better in his 40s is ridiculous.

 

Brilliant post. My thoughts exactly.

 

His chin was not better in itself, but his body's ability to take a punch was. Like fists of fury said, being bigger allows someone to absorb more damage. The added layer of muscle and fatty tissue around his neck (and his extra weight in general) allowed him to take a shot better.

 

A shot to the body perhaps, but not a shot to the chin.

 

You think 160lbs* Toney takes the shots chunky 220+lbs James does?

 

A shot to the chin too. Neck muscles help with that, otherwise boxers past and modern (Dempsey and Tyson being 2 great examples) wouldn't bother doing neck exercises.

 

Yet there he was soaking up bombs with very very little trouble all those years later for another decade of warefare.

There was James Toney sat on his arse at 160 by a 160 pound guy with a 48% KO record yet 15 years later with 50 more fights of wear and tear at 38yo cruising 24 rounds with a 250 pound power punching behemoth with a 65% KO record..................................at 230 plus pounds himself. Peter, a guy 90 pounds heavier than the guy that dropped Toney and 90 pounds heavier than where Toney won his first world title.

 

To be fair it was for like 2 seconds and Reggie was infinitely more clever then Samuel Peters.

 

It's heavily theorized and seems reasonable, but I am not entirely 100% on it there are many neckless powerlifters who shatter when they get lit up. Dempsey also chewed pine resin and took flush shots to train his chin just because they do thing's doesn't mean it is necessarily right.

 

The one area where fighters have always developed their muscles, is in terms of neck exercises.

Old George would not have been doing anything that young George didn't do.

 

I have heard and read old foreman used a harness, bands and a few other "modern things" during his comeback to protect his old noggin.

 

But this is perhaps severely overlooking James Toney's impregnable defense, head slipping, and anticipating shots to brace himself. These are all intangible skills that can continue to improve even as you get older. It's not very scientific to look at the Peter fight and assume the only thing that allowed for him to survive bombs from a large heavyweight slugger was piling on a bunch of fat. Especially because he was knocked down once in more than 90 fights.

If Toney was getting floored or KOd frequently in the lower weights and then displayed an impervious chin at HW that would be something to look into. But he wasn't. Peter was not a clever boxer in the slightest sense and it would be fairly easy for a cagey guy like Toney to brace himself seeing slow but heavy blows. It's often the sharp fast shots you don't see coming that drop you.

As for fat/weight improving the ability to take a punch, there are plenty of boxers who put on a lot of weight and still got brutally KOd.

 

Toney was always well schooled defensively but he also took hard shots at all stages of his career. They all do. I wouldn't say Toney just piled on a bunch of "fat" tho he was certainly not a pretty site

If you had a glass jaw sure piling on weight isn't likely to help much at all yes. Toney had a good chin from the start but i personally can't see him taking the shots he did at heavyweight weighing 160 pounds as efficiently as he did at 230 plus, i really can't. He was legitimately hurt that one time at 160.

I'd also hazard a guess that Hearns at 175 with the extra mass would take shots from a 147 pound Leonard a bit better than he did weighing 147 himself.