Rank these chins

Better chin then all of them

 

Actually, according to Ray Arcel, it was the Uzcudun kayo that did that!.Listen to

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I disagree.

First of all, Rocky could be wild but even he made baer and foreman look crude sometimes. He had better head movement and slipping ability than either of them, could fight out of a crouch to dip low and dodge, and he had better stamina and awareness to evade shots he saw coming.

Marciano didnt get hit as much as people say because most of his early opposition prior to stepping up were demolished before they got a chance to land anything. He didnt face very many big punchers. The ones he did face were on the small side, rex layne, Moore, and Walcott were only 5'11-6 ft and under 200 pounds.

So similar to Vitali, he gets rated high based on the fact he was only down 2x and was never KOed but compared to foreman/Baer/holyfield/etc there simply isnt enough on screen evdience to support the notion his chin was better than theirs. They faced more punchers (who were bigger men on average) and got hit more often yet they very rarely got stopped. To put things in perspective, im 200% certain foreman would eat just about any single punch from marciano's opposition and wouldnt go down. Wobbled possibly if he got caught off guard, but if fraziers hook just bounced off foremans face like a tennis ball no man under 200 lbs is gonna drop him.

What rocky had was amazing conditioning, spring in his strong stocky legs to absorb the impact, and a lot of heart.

 

Mercer
Vitali
Holyfield
Foreman
Baer
Marciano
Willard
Braddock

 

Good God I never noticed how big walcott head was until I saw your profile pic!

 

According to Jim Braddock himself in a taped interview it occurred in his fight with Louis.I posted the verified quote here on page1.

"Because I never got hit much ,I never got cut up.
But I got twenty three stitches in my face.
The punch that he knocked me out with,he hit me with a left hook in the stomach ,this was in the eighth round,and a right hand in the mouth.and I had naturally,the mouthpiece in.
He drove the tooth through the gumshield and right through the lip.You see what power the guy had.
When he knocked me down,I could have stayed there for three weeks."Jim Braddock from a taped interview by Peter Heller in Braddock's home on Sept 9th 1972.


FYI
Uzcudun had a gold bridge Louis smashed it when he ko'd him and Paulino's teeth were strewn on the ring .The reporters said they," looked like a charm bracelet".
"Id wait for an opening.In the fourth I hit him with a right to the jaw.he countered with a left hook.I banged a right over his left and he went down for an eight count.When he got up,I hit him with a left and right to the jaw,sending him against the ropes , I could see his face split open
and some of his gold teeth sprinkle down on the canvas." Joe Louis" My Life".page 77

 

Over half of Moore's ko''s are over 3rd raters and middleweight and lightheavy 3rd raters at that.

 

Mercer showed he could take the most sustained punishment from noted punchers. Had he not been dropped by Evander (more of a sharp shot that Mercer wasn't expecting that an unbelievably powerful one; he was showboating at the time) then we'd probably most of us have him number one. He took huge bombs off Lennox and Cooper and walked right through them. The punishment he took in the Morrison fight was insane; repeated explosive combinations right on the chin from a monstrous power hitter. Took hellacious punishment off a young Wlad as well, back when Wlad didn't mind letting his hands go. This was way past his prime and little more than a punching bag. Physically I'd say he was the most difficult to hurt and the most physiologically well-proportioned to take a hard shot.

Foreman in his comeback proved extremely resilient, but to a large degree it was his size and awkward arms out style coupled with his strength and rep as a puncher that prevented fighters getting solid hits on him. Morrison wasn't really able to catch him cleanly the way he was with Mercer, and couldn't really unload his combinations on him the same way because he kept getting pushed backwards. Evander was the only top class fighter that caught Foreman and nearly had him out of there, though the fact that Big George stayed standing from that ridiculous barrage is proof enough that he could take a damned good shot. I'd put him slightly below Mercer on that evidence.

Holyfield had a great chin but he could be hurt and put down. It was more his heart that kept him in fights that his raw punch-resistance. Similar to Ali in that regard.

Marciano never fought enough great HW punchers for me to rate him accurately. I think his chin was decent, but not upper echelon.

I've hardly seen any footage of Willard, but he looked to have a bang average chin and a lot of guts to keep getting to his feet.

Braddock looked to have an ok chin for his size, nothing more.

Vitali's chin was above average but overrated in my opinion. He rarely took sustained damage the way Mercer or even Holyfield did. In fact, aside from Lennox, Hide and Sanders he rarely took big clean shots off anyone, a testament more to his defensive nous than his chin. Sanders could be said to have hurt him the worst, and, unofficially, I believe knocked him down, Lennox had him staggering and desperate to clinch, and Hide didn't last long enough to have much of an effect (though to be fair to Vitali he took those shots without flinching).

Baer's chin, like a lot of the earlier fighters mentioned, wasn't really tested enough for me to rate him across eras. He seemed more resilient than Braddock and maybe Marciano, but that's guesswork to a large degree.

 

Excellent post.Louis said Baer had the best chin of his opponents.

 

Wow! I guess it happened in both fights! I grew up listening to the LP which was issued around 1960 and Arcel's description of the Uzcudun fight has been emblazoned in my mind for ever after. I read Heller's book from cover to cover a couple of times, but forgot about Braddock's testimony there. Braddock's description in the LP includes the 23 stitches, but he doesn't say on what part of his face. I guess I was right about Arcel, but entirely wrong about James J. I apologize. Guess I need to read the entire thread before butting in half way through!

I guess the Uzcudun fight offers a good argument for not wearing your bridge during a fight. Especially against a puncher like Joe Louis!!

For fun I'm attaching the opening six minutes of the "Great Moments in Boxing" LP. Braddock's quote is included there.

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OLIVER MCCALL and JAMES TONEY

Then the rest

 

Marciano broke Rex Layne's bridge.Rocky himself took his out when he fought,which you can see in the photo of him celebrating after the Louis win.