Who had the better chin, foreman or ali?

So a chubby 35 year old ring worn Ali who was declining from parkinsons had a better chin than all throughout his prime 20's or early 30's?

 

Compared to the Cooper Hook, definately. His prime 20s is hard to check, as Rocky Marciano in 1966 said. "His biggest asset is getting away from punches, he´s never been hit with a good punch."

The punches Ali took in the Shavers fight are just unhuman:

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"I never realised what a beating Ali could take"
"The bombs Ali took in this fight. Jesus."

 

The only thing correct about this assesment is that nobody realized how good alis chin was until his legs and reflexes slowed down and he had to either outpoint or outlast his opponents.

His chin was always good. His recovery was even better, thats the difference. Not one person was able to capitalize after hurting him. If you have a weak chin at some point someone is going to capitalize after hurting you and no one could do it pre or post exile. Shavers and ali both admit he was badly hurt in the 2nd but ali got in shavers head, made him doubt himself, and played possum. Shavers hesitated and doubted himself because no one ever knew exactly how much it would take to stop him for one, and for two, shavers saw what happened in zaire ans didnt want to punch himself out. In shavers biography he explicitly stated he had a whole new approach in this fight and against holmes because he would always burn through his stamina so he paced himself for a 15 rounder and conserved his energy and power in case he needed it later. Its not like shavers was hitting with full strength literally every shot while ali just stood there taking bomb after bomb like arturo gatti the whole time. Shavers wasnt a relentless volume punching work horse like frazier or pacquiao, he was a stalking boxer puncher with a limited punch selection.

People talk about the powerful body shots he took from frazier and foreman but forget chuvalo and liston were great punchers too. They both managed to land some wincing body shots. Ali didnt even flinch. Patterson could bang pretty hard too and Ali shrugged his attacks off. This was all pre exile, its a myth prime ali had a glass jaw, the writers just assumed that because he was slim and tried his hardest to avoid getting hit.

 

Agree.

Also Ali's defence was generally streets ahead of Foreman's so doubtless that also contributed to his 'chin'. Ali's superb conditioning allowed him to recover from shots that would have been fight ending for other HW's. Foreman's ridiculous chin allowed him to likewise weather the storm, but he wasn't as wise in conserving his energy. A gassed fighter's chin goes down several grades.

 

hard to say. Ali was better defensively. Sort of like the comparison to Duran and Leonard on another thread. Ray was better defensively than Duran, which some people will argue, but he was.. Hearns could not hit him clean. Although Benitez did, by fighting Ray on the inside. Still. I think it is hard to compare.

 

Ali.

 

@Glass City Cobra : I´m not saying Clay had a glass chin, nor am I talking about bodyshots. He did have a good quick recovery after beeng hurt, thats not what I´m talking about. I´m talking about losing the control after taking a single good punch. Do want to say you see Shavers Ali collapse from the Cooper left hook? The Shavers right hands had full force for sure. You can pace yourself just by throwing less punches anyway.... When the opening comes, you are not gonna withhold the shot which should hit the target as quick as possible also (max. nerval innervation).

 

As the previous poster said, Ali defense allowed him to rarely get hit solidly; when he did he went down or was obviously hurt.
Foreman much better chin; he got tagged often. No one knocks out Foreman; even after his post-Zaire meltdown he took Lyle's bombs and wasn't going anywhere. In the end, I thought Ron was dead!!
Had Lyle landed those Foreman bombs on Ali in May 75 he may have been out. Ali had whiskers to say the least but Foreman took the big shots and clearly had the better chin.