Perhaps not in skill, overall quality, etc.. But power is power and he took some huge shots from all of those guys. For all their shortcomings Frank Bruno, David Tua, Shannon Briggs, Tommy Morrison, etc could hit hard. Their failure to meet all time great status was for other reasons, but lack of power is not among them.
As powerpunchers? All are better than Frazier, Chuvalo and Foster... a couple leagues higher. Frazier was a one armed attrition puncher, Chuvalo merely a decent body puncher and Foster... well, a light heavy. Liston was a great boxer/puncher. His skills, his jab, his punch selection had as much to do with his success as his power. He was an elite puncher, no doubt, but I seriously doubt he hit harder, shot for shot, than Bruno, Briggs, Morrison or even an old Tyson. I tend to think Shavers power was a bit overrated. I am not the only one in these parts who thinks this. He just overcommited and overdelivered every punch, punched himself out a lot and worried little about counters coming his way. If anyone on the Lewis list boxed in that manner, they would have more highlight KO's but worse records. Foreman was a great puncher, as good as any ever. Not going to argue with that.
Mercer as an old shopworn fighter absorbed plenty of Wlad's bombs before being stopped. Vitali never ever in his life had to take any kind of sustained punishment. Ray was dropped by Holyfield, but what does that really mean? He was not on ***** street and went the distance just fine. There is nothing to suggest that Vitali has a chin in Mercer's class. There just isn't enough evidence to back that claim up.
Sure, I'm not arguing that. I'm not saying Vitali didn't have an excellent chin, but he never absorbed sustained beatings. Two big shots from noted punchers is about the worst of it, I think. He took one or two decent shots from Briggs but nothing really heavy. So what we can say is that Vitali could absorb big single punches. We don't know how his chin would hold up against sustained attacks when he is tired and losing a fight. He was never in that situation so we can't say.
Well what would you class as a good chin? Someone who can take monster shots or someone who can take a sustained beating? Mike Tyson could take big single shots but pepper him with combinations and he fell to pieces. Joe Frazier got dropped by single shots but he could take a real beating over 15 rounds.
Sometimes just because xyz has never been ko'd gets overated. Mcall and Vitali have very good chins, but honestly how many punchers did Mcall face? Holyfield has a much better chin because its tried and tested. He took uppercuts from Lewis, Bowe, and Tyson and survived, that speaks volumes
Lewis wasn't in many tough fights due to his skills, size and power, but the Bruno fight was a tough one for Lewis, and he was in some distress in that one. He was also TKO'd in the amateurs, but that might not count for much. Chins are best graded when they are hit. We saw what happened to Lennox when a good right hand landed. He never got up to win or beat the count. Had Lewis never meet Rhaman and McCall though, I think most would view him as more durable than history showed us.
Another shout out for great chins that nobody would have thought of his Jimmy Young. The man fought Tiger Williams,Lyle,Foreman, Shavers, Norton,Cooney,Page, and Tucker. Young was only stopped once in his career by Earnie Shavers who's arguably the biggest puncher in the history of the division.
Agree. I believe Ali has the best chin and most durable body. Even though he has stoppage losses Tyson must be in the discussion, incredible chin and punch resistance. Vitali is tough, maybe top 10, as well as McCall. Was Chuvalo even hurt against Foreman? haah thats frightening. I believe someone on another thread had commented that he saw a video of Chuvalo saying his skull was abnormally large which accounted for his punch resistance.