What factors come into play in having a great chin??or lack of??

Conditioning,thick neck, and mental toughness.

 

I honestly think its stance and mental toughness. Vitali and Wladimir have pretty similar skulls, jaws etc. But Wlad sells out on punches more putting himself in danger. when Vitali takes a big punch, its usually when his opponnent is closer in and attacking. Wlad, when he is tired and out of position.
People say Toney has a great chin...is it chin strength? or where he is hit. He hangs on the ropes and gets hit by short arm punches most of the time.

 

Its obvious that a strong chin is a mixture of tangible traits plus the intangible. For instance a guy like Baldomir does not just have physical features of a man with a strong chin but he also has a mental/physcological advantage, if you can't dent him in the first couple punches or rounds some fighters already decide to take less of their punches and work more on points. Also add in the fact that Baldo understands he does not have the relfexes of a cat therefore he tends to brace himself for an attack almost every second of the fight. This is why quick fighters are usually known for have less punch resistance because they rely on their reflexes and punch avoidance rather than punch resistance. Its all relative, some people can simply point to weight drain which is totally justifiable because essentially the more erratic the flow of fluid is in the brain the more likely you are to reacting slower and more likely you are to black out because of the lack of cushion in the skull.

 

A lot of it is genetic, but other factors include a thick skull and a big neck.

 

Whatever Hopkins has, thats what it takes.

Keep your chin tucked.

 

also rolling with the punches like james toney does helps take away from the power of the punch thats being landed

 

thick short neck - tua, tyson, peter, mccall

 

michael moorer had the thickest neck of any heavywieght champion and he didnt have the best chin. A thick neck could help though

 

any type of skill learned, stance, neck roll whatever, does not give you a stronger chin.
They are just things that you can take into your own hands to work with what you got.

Take Oliver McCall or George Chuvalo, these guys are not defensive masterminds, but they took shots that would have laid another man flat out.
And they did this all the time. Born that way.

Having a good beard, or a glass jaw, is taking two different people of the same size and weight, you hit one with a bat across the jaw and he stays on his feet, the other man goes into a five day coma. Same bat, same dude hitting the guy in the jaw with the bat, different facial structures, different reactions.
It's the same way why some guys are more prone to cuts and others aren't.
If you have high cheekbones, this makes me more prone to cuts, there is nothing you can really do about that, except work more on defense. But if you get tagged with a shot, there are better odds that you will bleed while another guy goes on fine. You can toughen up the skin, but that doesn't mean that you are not always going to be at a disadvantage.

 

zuras is right imo look at marciano as an example