Mustafa Hamshos Chin - Fact Or Fiction?

It was overrated, but considering his egregious skillset, still pretty damn good.

 

He had a decent chin but overated

 

Some boxing publications were rating Wilford Scypion as the middleweight division's hardest puncher when Hamsho walked right through everything he had during their brutal ten round war. (This was less than a year after Scypion killed Willie Classen.) Wilford had ten round stamina, but he punched himself out on Hamsho's chin. Hagler beat the **** outta him in Rosemont, but couldn't put him down. In Marv's 12 successful title defenses, only Hamsho and Duran were able to finish one without hitting the deck. Czyz also hit him with some huge shots, and Lalonde later failed to floor him.

During his prime, he would often taunt an opponent with a faux wobble after getting clobbered with that foe's best shot. When Czyz hit him flush with his hardest punch of the night, Mustafa fired back with his best shot of the match, and Bobby shrunk back into meek submission in front of his hometown fans and a national television audience.

 

He had a good chin, but it sure collapsed against Hagler in 1984.

 

that's how devestating Hagler was in those days. One shot and he ruined you. I knew Hearns was next in line for total destruction and he was

 

I'd have to review the footage, having only seen it when it aired live, as I don't recall him being under any significant distress. I was startled with the outcome of Hagler II. I figured all those shots he'd taken had finally caught up to him, and that his chin indeed simply failed. (Marv could also be hell in rematches, and was probably really psyched up for his one and only appearance at the storied MSG.)

As far as I know, Hamsho was a dedicated trainer who lived cleanly during his career, and never had issues with drugs or making weight. (Two years after the Hagler rematch, he was still competing under the middleweight limit.)

 

Overrated my ass. I was at all his Atlantic City fights in the early 80's and that mot4455erf886655cker could take a punch. When Marvin finally ko'd him in 84, Hamsho twisted or broke his ankle on the first knockdown and couldn't walk after that. But everyone hit this cat w/ their best shot and he laughed at them. In one of the boxing rags of the time they talked about smiles of diff. fighters when fighting. Like the Roberto Duran "I'm gonna beat you up sneer", the Wilfred Benitez "You couldn't hit me w/ a baseball bat smile" and the Mustafa Hamsho "Go ahead, hit me w/ a baseball bat, I don't care" simper. He had one of the greatest chins in history and deserves credit for it.:cusDoes anyone go to fights anymore and actually see these guys? There has to be guys on these boards from those days that can back up what I say.

 

You really put your finger on how guys like Cobb and Hamsho obtained their reputations in the first place. The pundits who made these assertions were steady professional ringside eyewitnesses, not armchair television jockeys. (As a former fan who's long since been turned off to contemporary boxing, no, I don't go to fights or even bother to watch anything except archival footage anymore. That's all in my now distant past. But of course there's no substitute for seeing these things live.)

As for Hamsho having one of the greatest chins in history, he has gotten credit for that ever since he became a contender, and that reputation is far too well entrenched to be vulnerable to revision now.

 

I was at MSG for Hagler 2. Hamsho had his brains rattled from the first knockdown and was ruined from then on.

 

By 1987, Hamsho was fighting well above his natural weight class. He was aging and ringworn. Burned out. Also, as I understand it, Rocchigiani had a pretty good punch. That Hamsho was fighting a naturally bigger guy needs to be considered here.

When fighters are at the end of their careers, with slowed reflexes, they get hit for the first time ever by big bombs that they could have deflected in earlier years. Also, it's possible that a boxer's durability erodes with age and accumulated ring trauma over years.

There's no doubt that Hamsho had an excellent chin. It is a gross exaggeration to say that he was one of the most durable middleweights ever, though. Hamsho was certainly not as durable as Jake LaMotta or Bennie Briscoe.

 

It was certainly a shocking outcome. I expected Hamsho to lose big to Hagler, but never expected Hagler to floor Hamsho and stop him early. That was the first time Hamsho's chin ever let him down, I think.

 

Alan Minter's power was well above average. Not many people today realize that. Hamsho probably took a big bomb from Minter and recovered quickly.