Who Had The Best Chin Willard Or Carnera

Willard had the better chin of the two. I would think the forum would lean heavily towards that conclusion as well. I think a better question that may merit debatable pros and cons on the subject matter would be is Carnera's chin underrated?

 

These lads took the best shots of Jack Dempsey and Max Baer respectively and kept getting up to endure more. Neither of these guys had a chin like Micheal Moorer. If forced i'd say Willard purely because of what he suffered against Dempsey without being stopped by the ref or counted out.

 

Posting error.

 

Posting error yet again! (Sorry folks. Still waking up!)

 

Willard, and I assumed that it was never really questioned!

 

Have to go with Willard. Despite the seven crushing knockdowns he suffered in the first round against Dempsey at Toledo, he kept getting up. While the fight perhaps should have been stopped in the first round, Willard remained upright for the second and third rounds and still tried to make a go of it. Also, up to that 1919 Toledo fight, Willard had not even been floored as a pro fighter. And in Peter Heller's book In This Corner Gunboat Smith, himself a hard walloper, tells of unloading his Sunday punch on Willard's chin and he said the effect was "his hair wiggled a little." At that point, he decided to content himself with boxing Willard to win the 20-round decision. Willard's other KO loss was to the crude but powerful slugger Luis Angel Firpo in 1923 when Jess was in his early 40s and except for a victory over Floyd Johnson hadn't fought since the Dempsey bout. Even then he lasted into the eighth round.

While I don't know how many times Carnera had been floored prior to his title-winning effort against Sharkey, I know that Sharkey floored him once in their first fight in 1931. He got up, and lost a 15-round decision. Against Baer, he was floored something like eleven times over the course of the bout, but he kept getting up. The film I've seen of this bout shows a wild-swinging melee. He went down a couple of times against Joe Louis and thereafter faded from the scene. He suffered a few more stoppages later, after he was pretty well gone. While I believe Willard had the sturdier chin of the two, I also believe that Carnera's chin is underrated.

Both Willard and Carnera were very game fighters who displayed their gameness best in the bouts where they lost the title.

 

Willard is in a much higher class ... Carnera is not as bad as many think as he seemed to have terrific recuperative powers .. he got up from terrific shots v.s. Baer but was pretty much done against Louis ... Baer was not the combination punching finisher a Dempsey or Louis was but he could hit and Primo kept getting up ..

 

dont twist my words, I said neither giant had a great chin, Willard had only 28 fights 22-5-1 and was stopped 3X, Carnera had triple the fights and was 77-6-0 when he was Ko'd (for the 1st time in his career by Baer and then Joe Louis a year later. Willard was bounced around badly by Dempsey. I dont think either man would win the best chin award, heart they had.

I dont think Willard would have held up well if he had to fight Max Baer or Joe Louis either at any stage of his career

 

Uzcudun was known for his granite chin and never die attitude. He was a swarmer/brawler with good endurance and only average power at best. I think he was probably somewhat in the mold of Derek Chisora only slightly better.