Rate their chins. Marciano, foreman or holmes?

1.Foreman, 2.Holmes, 3.Marciano.I'm giving Larry the edge over Rocky because he was taking shots from significantly bigger men. All had great chins and excellent recuperative powers.

 

Interesting that you say the one guy on the list who was NEVER knocked out has the weakest chin..

The guys who knocked Larry down were relative to his own size.

To be honest, these guys all took a punch really well.

 

1.) Marciano...
2.)Holmes...
3.)Foreman

 

Clearly foreman is #1 on this list. Name one heavyweight who could take shots from shannon briggs, morrison, or cooney at 45+ years old. His only stoppage was a fight where he lterally punched himself out, had stupid management and corner advice, and had zero gas left against one of the top 5 best heavies of all time.

Marciano is second but with an asterisk* because his best opponents were close to 40, had been in many wars, and werent the biggest heavies nor did they have "monstrous" A class punching power to begin with. Had his opponents been even a couple years younger or he fought a few more genuinely large heavyweights with power id have him as my #1 for chin but it isnt his fault and we never saw his absolute limit so i can only place him so high.

Holmes was down against c level snipes but recovered quickly and stopped him. Cant really hold shavers against him, the guy hit like a speeding truck, and he survived and won on top of that. Tyson is obvious (being one of the hardest hitters ever) since he was out of the ring for years coming off losses at 38. To his credit he got up twice and was caught at a bad angle.

 

I honestly feel that any order of the three is plausible.

 

All have great chins. I'd rate Foreman No 1. To come back as he did at a old age, fight many bouts some against hard punches and never get knocked down is a great testament to his chin.

I would put Rocky as No 2. His style dictates that he needs great whiskers to be successful.

Holmes No 3.

 

Pound for pound, Marciano all the way.

But! In terms of sheer durability, it has to be Foreman.

Holmes, last, even though he did recover well.

Chins are hard to rate in the sense that a fighter's durability is often proportional to his cardio and overall fitness. A Foreman may have the better chin by some way in that if I had to pick one of those three to take a clean shot and still be standing, it'd be him. On the other hand, after he gassed out, he proved to be "crackable".

Marciano may have a worse chin than Foreman, but his cardio and stamina were tremendous and he had the ability to "bounce back" from being decked, as though he'd hardly been decked at all. I suspect that if he'd been the same size as Foreman, his chin may have been better ... pure conjecture here, of course.

The real question is which version of resilience you prefer.

I don't think they are mutually exclusive. A guy like Hagler could take utter bombs and recover quickly on the couple of occasions he was wobbled, and I have a suspicion that Golovkin might be in the same bracket.

 

Marciano - Knocked down by big punchers in Moore and Walcott. Left himself open sometimes and paid for it against big counterpunchers. No problems with his chin.
Foreman - Young wasn't a big puncher by any means and Foreman was prime. Never had chin issues but when his stamina got bad he was liable to get put down. In his comeback when he got his stamina under control his chin was fantastic.
Holmes - Knocked down and/or rocked more than a few times but against good/top punchers. I wouldn't worry about his chin holding up in most match ups more than the next man.

 

Can't see ranking anyone above Foreman.

Marciano was easier to knock down than Holmes, but it's hard to conclude much else.

 

Rocky Marciano 09/01/1923
Ezzard Charles 07/07/1921

Fight Date: 06/17/54

Charles is often cited as one of his best opponents and he was only 32. Rocky was 30.

 

Stamina plays a huge part in durability or more specifically in boxing, the ability to take a punch. Lots of factors to consider here. All three had really excellent defense and recovery powers. But here's how it breaks down in terms of their actual displayed punish resistance.

1. Marciano-KD by Walcott and Moore.
2. Holmes-KOed by Tyson at 40 years of age, KD by Shavers, KD by Snipes
3. Foreman-KOed by Ali, KD twice by Lyle, KD by Young

 

I never said charles himself was close to 40. He was still a natural light heavy and not known for being a devastating hitter at that weight.

Charles was slick and skilled but id much rather be hit by him than briggs or morrison.

Holme was 38