What is the most important physical quality in professional boxing?

explosiveness

 

I would say chin, not meaning you have to be able to take freakish amounts of punishment, but you gotta be relatively tough I think.

Otherwise all the others are going down the toilet when you get hit, which is inevitable in boxing. Amir Khan, classic example. He has some good physical qualities elsewhere, but no toughness.

 

Speed kills altough my favorite would be chin.

 

You always hear trainers stress the importance of stamina.

I would have to say stamina or toughness.

 

a glass jaw.

 

Its a combination of the qualities that you have posted above. If you dont have some of all of them, you not succeed.

There are fighters who are freakishly gifted in one specific area, but the wont sustain at the highest level.

The best quality to have a long and successful career is to become a defensive master.

 

Chin and it's not close. If you can't take a punch, you're not going far.


Stamina is second.

 

Mental toughness.

I say stamina, because it's the one thing that every single pro boxer should have. If you can't show up ready to go 12 rounds, you shouldn't be in the sport.

 

Initially Im thinking speed of hand and feet, but then I think of Khan and then I go to to chin, then I think of Peter.
So I think the most important attribute has to be defence, you can build off of that.

 

That's actually a very good one, and not emphasised often enough.

 

Isn't that more of a mental attribute, though?

Comes with more experience and training.

 

Yeah this one has got to be near the top.

I wonder how biologically innate an ability it is.

It's weird though. The kid (Khan) seems to have a lot of heart. I mean he clambored off the ropes after the first KD/KO and looked completely starched. But he still got up and tried like hell to fight. Even after the 2nd, he was still attempting to climb off the apron.

He wasn't dazed for long either, seemed completely lucid post-fight. He appears to have an inability to absorb the initial impact.

Exciting fighter though. Freakish speed and accuracy + no chin = BIG TIME TROUBLE.

This is boxing; a boxer has to be able to take a punch. So I think this quality outshines most.

 

Stamina and speed.

 

Exactly, it does not matter how quick you are, how powerful, how great your reflexes are, there has never been a boxer that didn't get hit. The other guy has arms just like you.

It is absolutely essential. If we assumed most of the attributes are already reasonably good and I was choosing one that I'd like to be outstanding I'd probably have a different answer.