Actually, I have the day off today and was watching a bunch of old boxing matches, and Oliver McCall was totally knocked down by Henry Akinwande in round 2 of their fight. Ropes kept him up, was sitting on the bottom rope, but it wasn't ruled a knockdown. Even the announcers said it should have been ruled a knockdown. Akinwande hurt him later in the round with an uppercut, too. Not sure if this would make me bump Vitali above him, but it definitely makes it closer than I thought.
Good point. Marion Wilson fought a who's who of HW fighters. He lost to every one of 'em, but never by KO. Top flight journeymen with solid beards are often overlooked when these lists are made. Another guy like this with a super solid mandible was Everett "Bigfoot" Martin. His chin wasn't quite as solid as Wilson's, but it was not that far off either. And like Wilson, he fought a who's who of top HWs.
No one had 90's foreman chin...he took between 18/20 unanswered punches from Holyfield in one round.He also walked thru some of morrisons crushing hooks.. Don't know about the ranking haven't done one yet ,but Vitali is easily top 3....I don't think Holmes so much,Tyson also took over 200 punches from Lewis who had a deadly right hand.,and also ate Ruddocks crushing hooks like cake..he had an iron chin when he was focused...Hose Robalta deserves a spot too as does Pinklon Thomas. Marciano was never hit by modern Heavies,i cant put him on the list.Getting dropped by 41 year old moore doesn't help his case. My top 3 right now based on who had to take the harder punches and keep standing even just for one fight as evidance...1/Foreman 2/Vitali Klitchko 3/ Mercer Foreman took EVERYTHING Holy through at him this fight alone shows his chin even at 205 holy the punches added up he battered Foreman for the entire fight and only rocked him twice.Was never off his feet in his comeback,taking huge Gerry ****ey hooks along with Morrisons,thats good enough for me. Vitali...took huge hitter Sanders best power shots,never remotely rocked up until Lewis who could not slow him down either,lewis arguably one of the top 3 one hit k.o guy in HW history. Mercer...rarely ever hurt ate Morrisons hooks that would crush most,and ate some huge Wlad power shots and still was standing,also stood up to lewis,but wasn't hit with the same punches vitali was.Holyfield did make him take a knee with a body shot .
Balance may have played a role but it was a legit flash knockdown. Not really hurt no, I think he was hurt worse by the uppercut later, but still a kd.
Wow, wasn't aware of him. That's an incredibly impressive list of really top punchers that he was never ko'd by. The fact he lost to all of them is more impressive in some ways, clearly he was taking some shots. Anyone know if he was ever kd'd? Based on this, unless he was kd'd a few times, I think he's got to make this list.
foremans has to be outstanding, it was still awesome IN HIS 40s, a time when your mental gyrometer starts losing it subtley.