Most mentally tough boxers in history?

I'm not going to downplay the toughness of modern boxers, but the old timers fought under much harder conditions, and proved their toughness to a higher level.

I think it's impossible to pick one really

Guys like Bob Fitzsimmons, Kid Lavigne, Jem Carney, Jack Johnson, George Dixon and many others all have a case.

 

interesting enough I think about Marvin Hagler, yet sometimes I think Marvin was the most sensitive fighter I ever saw in how he reacted, yet the toughest in the ring in what he could take. It is as though he used his sensitivity to be tough... Yet in some fights it backfired on him if the person he fought didn't antagonize him enough.

 

Battling Nelson.

 

Joe Frazier.

Upheld through a career but probably best exemplified in the FOTC. What Joe soaked up to fight through and win that fight was UNREAL.

 

Marciano,he never entertained the possibility of losing.
Basilio, toughed it out no matter how much punishment he was taking,always trying to win,never coasted to just survive.
Saad Muhammad,endured tremendous punishment at times and came back to win.
Arturo Gatti, never quit.
Diego Corrales as above.
Old Timers.
Jack Johnson, he had to be mentally very tough, he had the world against him.
Ad Wolgast & Battling Nelson, two rock hard dynamos.
Joe Walcott & George Kid Lavigne, diamond hard men.
Joe Jeannette, the marathon man.
Harry Greb, his resume proves he must have been supremely confident of his prowess.
Sam Langford fought for years when half blind.
Bob Fitzsimmons won the light heavy title at age 39, he had huge blisters on his feet and at the end of the fight his boots were soaked with blood.
Men made in a different mould.

 

Chris Eubank SR was the only real throwback in recent times. They were all that tough back in the day. Fought Watson with a broken sternum (first fight) from sparring, Benn had him excreting blood and needing his tongue stitched up, Watson nearly killed him (second fight) and Thompson broke his cheek bone (first fight) early. You would have to of carried him out.

 

I'm glad you posted this, as I was going to do the same.

Marvin would put himself through unbelievable physical pain. But he was a lot weaker emotionally.

 

Not to discriminate, but there has to be a Mexican somewhere. Those boys are built differently.

I'd say JMM. He would always take some heavy punishment and ALWAYS gave as good as he got and would turn things around.

 

It's hard to determine where mental strength is overtaken by physical toughness. A lot of names on this thread epitomise never quitting and being able to soak up huge physical punishment which can only happen with strong mental resilience.

But to try and differentiate the two and focus on the mental fortitude only, while not downplaying the physical toughness of these guys, what about guys like Craig Bodzianowoski who defied the disability of losing a leg to become a world class cruiserweight? To persevere and achieve that much, with the odds so stacked against you, must have taken Herculean willpower on a daily basis. Nobody would have thought any the less of him if he had called it a day long before he did.

Or Pazienza. Credit where due, to have come back and rebuilt your career after those vertebrae injuries, redefining your style and competing three weight classes - or 19lbs - over your peak weight and win a belt must have taken some uncrackable self-belief. Then, of course, he went up two more classes and another 14lbs. I take my hat off to him because that was quite something under any circumstances.

Jersey Joe? Stuck at it, always in good shape, learning more skills even when he was well into his 30s and not discouraged by a career filled with low purses. He never stopped believing, held down a second job on the docks and finally got his reward. How many men would have carried on at all with mouths to feed when years of getting beaten up had yielded next to nothing financially? It seemed that the effort required through all that meant that Joe had gone to the well once too often for the Rocky rematch and he was not there mentally, his mindset unable to support his physical body to take the punishment he knew was coming.

Finally, Ron Lyle. Living in a penitentiary with freedom years away, getting stabbed to within an inch of his life, Ron had a vision of being a boxer when he got out and pushed himself to do his 1000 push ups, wrap his hands and hit the walls of his cell. Ron got himself into better shape for a chance to maybe start out in a few years than many recent heavyweight champions do when they have an upcoming title fight. Nothing could discourage Ron from his endgame.

Fans of old-timers will have more. For many of them, circumstances must have been so bleak that just surviving showed incredible resilience. Dempsey, riding the rails and living off his wits as well as his strength, must have had a will of iron. Of course, he was driven by the need to eat. Just as physical strength and resilience requires a good diet, perhaps mental strength benefits from malnutrition where the desperation of the situation yields mental strength beyond the realms of those not having it quite so tough.

And let's not forget the journeymen opponents who know they are going to lose but still turn up and take their lumps? I would find the prospect of fighting a professional boxer too much and would dissolve. Imagine knowing your opponent is going to beat you, being familiar with how much it hurts and still going ahead with fight after fight. That takes real mental toughness.

 

Mentally tough like grit, doesn’t give up, confidence etc. Marciano, Frazier, Holyfield, Louis.
Mentally tough like disciplined, not scared, calm.
Mayweather, Tunney,Jack Johnson, Ali

 

Evander Holyfield...that’s part of the reason he refused to retire

 

Sugar Ray Leonard

 

Bobby Chacon outlasted two fellow toughies Bazooka Limon and CBE shortly after his wife blew her brains out. That's tough.

I think these three, Saad, Holyfield and Hagler could have handled the conditions of any era

 

I understand the question but toughness in this subject is relative to its time...given the MMA fighters using gloves that are barely more protection than the gloves of the 1900 era and the return of bareknuckle boxing as a mainstream sport there are plenty of comparable fighters

George Chuvalo was a tough as they come with limited defensive skill and his power was not spark out type...he just kept coming no matter how hard he was hit....but going back in history Tom Molineaux vs Tom Cribb is a must read and could be a pickem for toughest guys.....the rough and tumble fighting era produced fighters who lost eyes, noses, ears etc...and kept fighting