Oliver McCall vs Ingemar Johansson

Good point! If the Bull is cracked out like he was against Lewis, he is fair game for Ingo.

 

McCall is too big too durable and hits too hard with that right hand

I can see Johansson having some success early on and then McCall clocks him with a big right hand round about the 7th or 8th round and that's all she wrote.

McCall stopped big Heavyweights like Masakev, Lewis, Akinwande, who were all round about 6'3/6'5 and between 230-240 pounds. I don't see that McCall would have much trouble stopping the much smaller Johansson when he eventually catches him.

 

That chin of McCall s is the winner.
He gets ingo eventually, I'd say before ten at least.

 

One thing is for sure - Ingo would not win by knockout (like he beat Patterson).

 

Thats why chin & heart are separate categories.

 

But does one have to have a strong chin to be tough?

Name some guys generally regarded as super-tough fighters who had below-average punch resistance.

 

I don’t think so, no. At least, it may depend on the conversational context. You could say a fighter was tough as in physically durable, & also tough as in doggedly determined. & a fighter might be one & not the other.

Look at the heart Patterson showed getting up six times against Johansson in their first fight. Or the guts he showed to win their rubber match when on the verge of defeat himself.

 

Yet when people talk ‘tough,’ they generall speak about guys who were able to absorb tremendous amounts of punishment.

Patterson had heart, but have you really seen his name come up in discussions of toughest fighters? I haven’t.

 

No I haven’t, but I’m of the opinion that his name should. He wasn’t durable but he was courageous. Which ‘tough’ you place greater emphasis on is in the eye of the beholder. I prefer the courage as that’s something one chooses with difficulty, as opposed to an innate characteristic. But as you like.

 

That was what my observation was about.

I agree with you. Perhaps the most courageous display I’ve ever seen in the ring came from a guy who went down without even getting hit. Derrik Kelly fought Wilfredo Gomez and went down I think it was seven times in five rounds. He tried like hell.

After the fight, The Ring published x-rays of his jaw. Gomez had not only cracked it into two pieces, the fracture actually split a tooth literally in half. Imagine how excruciating that must have been — the kind of pain that might make a normal person pass out. But he kept fighting as long as he could.

I’d say that guy was as tough as anyone I’ve ever seen.

 

That beats being born with McCall’s chin any day of the week, IMO.

 

Oliver could take a punch … maybe better than anyone who ever lived (or at least anyone who ever put on a pair of gloves).

But Oliver wasn’t tough enough to walk into the Lewis rematch and say, ‘Maybe I just got out of rehab, maybe I’m not in the physical and mental shape I wish I was in, but I’m standing in the ring with a guy I’ve knocked out before and I’m going to wing punches until either I get him out of here or he gets me out of here or the final bell rings.’ He didn’t have the toughness to even try.