Who was closest to being 'unknockoutable'?

McCall was beaten into submission??? Never.

 

co-sign. hagler was never knockedout in his career, his 3 losses were 2 UD's and 1 SD against leonard.

 

Yeah... He was dragged out of drug rehab and he basically had Lewis tee off on his face as he broke down and cried.

He was walking around quite fine despite those shots, though.

Bruno made him go into a shell.

That's about it.

 

Pernell Whitaker comes to mind first.
Of course Marvin Hagler belongs there.
I am surprised no one mentioned Roberto Duran yet, in his prime he was simply awesome.

 

:hey

 

Sorry I am quite like that :dead today, so I couldn't watch your post entirely.

 

He was stopped because of a swollen eye which hadnt healed from the previous Thompson fight (2 months previous) not exactly like he was levelled

Eubank was extremely durable

 

Hey no worries mate. I'm glad i got some support LOL

 

:good

 

How many times did Hagler step up in weight and fight a known banger, say at 190lbs?

 

Hey Manassa,

Like your Hagler call. Unbelievable chin.

How about Naseem Hamed? I think confidence is a big part of this thread, and at his best Naz was super confident, elusive and granite chinned...

Re: Chuvalo. I have watched the sustained battering Foreman gave him a number of times, and the severity of it almost brings tears to my eyes.

However, I recently heard Chuvalo say that he wasnt hurt (!), hadnt been hit by many clean shots and felt he could have gone on in the fight. He also said Foreman admitted he was arm weary after the assault, and perhaps would have folded through fatigue. Chuvalo really is a good pick for my money.

On another matter, think you are overly dimissive of Ali. I have prime Ali in this category too - great chin, elusive, great recovery, great ring-savvy.

 

I don't particularly like him but i think Toney edges it.

He was off his feet more often than Hagler, but then again, Hagler always in at terrific shape and retired at age 34 or something. Toney went on to fight big heavyweights while being in horrific shape himself and past the age of 36, took a shitload of punishment from Samuel Peter yet was only knocked down once, by a jab which seemed to be more balance related than being hurt or anything.



By the way Manassa, i know you don't want to hear this, but Ali definitly deserves to be mentioned here. Your criteria was "We're looking for fighters who were truly battle tested and stood up to the best.".
Well, Ali took on Foreman who was one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history whe he was at his absolute peak..... never knocked down. He took on one of the best swarmers in history in Frazier, once when he was at his peak and 2 more times later. He took a lot of punishment in the first yet was only knocked down once, was up immediatly and survived the other 2 minutes of the round. Took on yet another one of the hardest punching heavyweights in Liston who just came off his career best wins but was never down or hurt. Fought Shavers when he had very little left yet wasn't floored either.

If that's not "battle tested" then i don't know what is. I think Ali is as knockout proof as any heavyweight ever was: great defense, great (but not iron) chin, great recuperative powers, great survival ability & heart, rarely cut. I don't want to sound like a CM II here, but these are undeniably things. The only factor in "being stoppable" that was not A+ is his chin, but his chin is still very good, A i'd say.

 

I nominate Oscar Battling Nelson.

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Yeah that was an amazing shot he took from Mugabi and must have seriously worried "the beast" after Hagler so nonchalantly took it on the chin as it were and just kept on coming. If you watch it in slow-motion it's perfectly timed and right on the point of the chin snapping Marvin's head in a circular motion but it just didn't seem to faze him one bit.

I think the key to Marvin's chin lies about 6 inches due north of that. He just went in with the attitude that there was absolutely no way he was going to get beat or knocked down or even hurt. In his mind he was the destroyer and that was all she wrote.
Tremendous mental atttitude to the game.

 

I thought you might have went the way of Grim to be honest.