Which fighter faced the most number of very durable opponents?

I was recently looking at Lennox Lewis' record and his KO-percentage is relatively low for someone who i regard as one of the heaviest punchers in history. 41-2-1 (32), 73%.

But if you look at how many iron chinned fighters he fought:

Lennox Lewis:

Holyfield I
Holyfield II
Tua
Vitali Klitschko (stopped in 6)
Mercer
Mavrovic
Tyson (stopped in 8, was old)
McCall I
McCall II (stopped in 5)
Tucker


That's 11 fights against fighters that rarely (after severe beatings) or never taken out during their primes. That's a lot! Mason could be argued.

To make a few comparisons for hard-hitting fighters:

Mike Tyson:

Thomas (stopped in 6)
Tucker
Holmes (stopped in 4, was old)
Holyfield I
Holyfield II


That's 5 fights. 6 if you want to include Mitch Green, who seemed very durable but was perhaps not as tested as most contenders.


George Foreman:

Chuvalo (stopped in 3)
Ali
Young (arguably)
Holyfield
Schulz

That's 5 fights. Foreman had an incredible amount of padding on his record though, so it wouldn't have translated as much in his KO percentage anyway.

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Joe Frazier:

Bonavena I
Bonavena II
Machen (stopped in 10)
Chuvalo (stopped in 4)
Ali I
Ali II
Ali III
Bugner

That's 8 fights.

Sonny Liston

Bethea (stopped in 1)
Machen
Ali I
Ali II (as far as that's considered a "fight"..)

That's a total number of 4.

Rocky Marciano:

LaStarza I
LaStarza II (stopped in 11)
Lowry I
Lowry II
Louis (not an iron chin, but stopped only once in 70 fights of which 50 against top opposition, he deserves to be in here like Holmes)

That's 5 fights.

Joe Louis

Max Baer (stopped in 4)
Uzcudun (stopped in 4, was old)
Braddock (stopped in 8)
Galento (stopped in 4)
Godoy I
Godoy II (stopped in 8)
Simon I (stopped in 13)
Simon II (stopped in 6)
Bivins
Marciano

That's 10 fights.

Jack Dempsey

John Lester Johnson
Brennan I (stopped in 6)
Brennan II (stopped in 12)
Miske I
Miske II
Miske III (stopped in 3)
Tunney I
Tunney II
Gibbons

That's 9 fights. It should be noted that the first two Miske fights were scheduled for 6 and 10 rounds, so there was a bit less room for a knockout.

Willard (stopped in 3)




So, to summarize, the number of very durable opponents faced in a fight:

Lewis: 11
Louis: 10
Dempsey: 9
Frazier: 8
Tyson: 5
Foreman: 5
Marciano: 5
Liston: 4

 

I don't think they should be on the list. Valdes has been knocked out several times, including by a somewhat green version of Machen (not a puncher). Tubbs has a few first round KO losses close to his prime, in fact he had one the same year he gave Bowe that close fight. I don't think he belongs.

 

However i am considering to add Walcott to Louis. He suffered a few KO losses when he had little experience and fought under poor circumstances. When he fought a tremendous amount of punchers (outside of Ali, Lewis and Louis, more than any other heavyweight in history) and was stopped only by Marciano and Louis. Even at that, he was never in big trouble over 15 rounds with Louis in their first fight and went 13 with a peak Marciano.