Tyson's chin

He took good shots from razor ruddock and against frank bruno.

I'd give it an 7.9

 

If it was any one else that was stopped 5 times in 6 defeats.
People would put his chin in question. But hey its Tyson, so we let it slide.

 

I give him a 6 out of 10

 

Heavyweight champs who definitely had a better chin than Tyson would be
1.Ali
2.Marchiano
3.Foreman
4.Dempsey
5.Tunney
Heavyweight champs who definitely did not have a better chin than Tyson
1. Patterson
2.Douglas
3.Rahman
4.Leon Spinks
5.Mike Weaver
6.Schmeling
7.Joe Louis
8.Max Baer
9.Jim Braddock
It was a lot harder to name guys with weaker chins than Mike Tyson than better ones, so I would say that although he did not have a granite chin, he definitely didnt have one of glass. Definitely above average.

 

Thats fair enough but when he got dropped his first instinct was to grope around for his mouthpiece instead of trying to get up. I don't want to sound too hard on Tyson for this because if he'd have gotten up he'd have been KO'd but it showed to me he knew he was beat and didn't want to try to fight his way out of it.

 

In terms of taking a big single punch, Tyson's chin was fantastic.

In terms of taking an accumulation of punches (which is more a stylistic/defence oriented thing than chin-related), he was good not great.

Incidentally, i just ran into this video. Watch it at 00:14 and see Tyson take a SICK shot, the same smash that knocked out Dokes, Smith and many others. It lands flush on his chin while he ducks into it and probably doesn't see it, yet seconds later he's bobbing past a jab. Amazing.

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Freakish. Tyson's neck was so big I think it worked to nearly completely absorb any single big shot that hit him.

 

Thing about Tyson's chin is that any short comings that people may see have more to do with his style than his durablity. Ali backpedals so if he's hurt or really stunned he can retreat temporarily so he can regain his composure, Holyfield- same thing. Mercer same thing- infact with Mercer if you look at his bout with Evander in 1995- it was the first time in Mercer's career that I truly felt that if Evander pressed harder he would have stopped Ray in that fight. Mercer pretty much had the fight in the bag but coasted because he was badly hurt towards the end which is why he was backpedaling to regain composure. I had the feeling watching the fight that Mercer had prioritized finishing the fight on his feet more so than winning.


Tyson on the other hand fights one way, forward. If he's hurt he doesnt backpedal or use the ring to clear his mind. It was not in his style. Perhaps it would have helped- frankly it would have meant that Holyfield I would have ended up in the cards or possibly the Lewis fight (although I tend to believe that Mike didnt have the stamina for 12 at that time). Taking this into account, it should be acknowledged that Tyson's come forward motion ocassionally amplyfies the impact of the blows that he takes. And that he doesnt retreat when he's hurt which is why he doesnt recouperate well.


The way I see it, of all the lineal Heavyweight Champions I believe shot for shot Tyson may have very well had the best chin.

 

Early Tyson liked to fight and wanted to be there and fought back after being hit with a good shot........The Tyson after prison had no motivation except money to fight and thats not a good state of mind to have when hit with a good punch because you give in and allow other openings...Early Tyson had a good chin( not great but good) i mean he took an ass-whipping from Douglas before he finally went down......And Tucker and Ruddock bombed him good as well.....

 

Good point Ironchamp!!

 

As i said, the fact Tyson didn't finish his fights was mostly because of his do-or-die style.

And it's not like this was an isolated example of Tyson taking a huge bomb. Just watch the Lewis fight and see how he takes the best shot from Lennox Lewis, one of the hardest hitters of all time, for 8 rounds until there's no more left.

 

tyson had a very good chin, it wasn't a chuvalo class chin but still a pretty good indeed

bigjake