Rate their chins- Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis and Bowe.

Good question Ken and a tricky one. I'm going for
Holyfield
Bowe
Tyson
Lewis

 

Holyfield
Tyson
Bowe
Lewis

Holyfield, Tyson and Bowe all had Iron chins and it took more than one punch to get them out of there.

Lewis had an average chin, it could be cracked with a good punch from a decent puncher. I really don't think it was glass as some people state, he still took big shots and survived them.

 

Holyfield had the best chin for me. Bowe and Tyson were pretty even in terms of chin, imo. Lewis' chin was good, but not great.

 

Bowe
Holy
Tyson
Lewis

 

Holyfield proved his time and again vs Foreman, Stewart, Lewis, Tyson, Moorer, Bowe (apart from fight 3 where he looked awful) but then had those moments vs Bert Cooper. When focussed, Lewis proved his against some big bangers - Klitschko, Tua, Briggs, Bruno - but had his own two moments although the Rahman kayo was as much down to being exhausted and having his mouth open as a poor chin.

Bowe did not prove his and was nearly flattened by one punch by a very poor looking Evander. He did not meet the big hitters of the division and left no irrefutable proof that he had a chin of iron. I can't understand why he keeps getting credit for that. Great heart, yes, and would take a lot of punishment but that is different from having a chin that could not be dented by one shot. And the men who had the power to do that with one shot are conspicuously absent from his resume.

The only one who never went from one shot was Tyson. His knockdowns were always results of an accumulation of blows. So I will go with Mike who took huge shots from Ruddock, Bruno, Bonecrusher, Lewis, Douglas and never looked like going, at least until he had been completely beaten down. And Mike was the least disciplined of all four and would have gone into fights in poor condition, so the fact his chin stood up so well is testament to how tough it was. Especially with that neck under it.

In order: Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Bowe.

 

Tyson.

 

You could argue Tyson took the best single shot of the bunch, but his conditioning ( Possible due to having a very aggressive front-runner type of style ) heart, and toughness when things were not going his way was not close to Holyfield's.

I'd vote Holyfield here, with Tyson second. Third is debatable. Lewis was starched early based on one big punch landing without taking much damage prior, but Bowe never really fought many punchers.

I'd learn toward Bowe as #3, but it wasn't proven.

 

Holyfield.

 

Very fair comments. Although you could say that Tyson largely hung in there when things weren't going his way but he did so passively. He didn't have Holy's mental resilience to try and turn things around but would keep absorbing the beating and did so based on the strength of his chin as his conditioning wasn't much help.

But this is about chin rather than heart and, based on that criterion, Tyson took a shot as well as anyone.

 

Considering Holyfield turned pro as a light heavyweight,its impressive that he was able to carry a solid chin all the way up to heavyweight.

 

holyfield.

 

Holyfield had a great chin, great recovery, huge heart.
Bowe had an average chin but good heart and recovery.
Tyson possibly best punch resistance of them all but lacked recovery and heart.
Lewis was an enigma, he could take a great shot in most of his fights but still was 2x 1 punch KO'd.

 

Absolutely, Jack. I would say Evander's chin p4p was the best of the four. He routinely took shots from men that were naturally 20-30lbs heavier than him which none of the other three had to do. But he was markedly smaller and that is a factor.