Who was closest to being 'unknockoutable'?

I have not forgotten Grim's contribution.

 

Stop being silly. The guy got after two seconds.

Bert Cooper?! What you been drinking?

 

So had Hagler been stopped against Hearns because of the cut on his nose then that would be indictive of him being knock outable?

It was just one of those things where Eubank was a little older, a little more hittable, was facing a huge natural cruiser who could punch and happened to be in a war with him. The shots bounced off him. Eubank faced the same guy again and wasn't stopped.

Eubank is unstoppable. I can't see anyone ever stopping him. He had a great chin and refused to yield, even if he was being beaten up.

 

Eubank wasn't as good as Hagler and thus Hagler never took as much sustained punishment as Eubank did. I think Benn is one of the hardest punchers in history. Plus Eubank faced a puncher who on fight night weighed close to 200 pounds!

 

Hameds a great pick. Can't see him ever being stopped. Again dropped, stunned etc yes but not finished or stopped.

When it all went wrong for him v Barrera the shots just bounced off his chin.

Technically he was BEGGING to be ko'd but his chin and his heart didn't allow it. He was getting caught with left hooks when his chin was in the air and his feet were far from being planted. Yet no effect. All his kds have been wild off balance ones. Plus he fought some good punchers like Kelly and even Barrera.

 

The best chin belongs to some old guy who got hit with 5/6oz gloves and never yielded over 15 to 20 rounds.

 

That's a surprise. I've never seen that fight, so I can't really comment.

 

definetly, you wont find many yanks agreeing but, it would have to be something special to stop Hamed

 

It came up in a debate here once before. I'll have a look around for it on youtube (thats where I originally saw it). The Jones jr and Peter knock downs were balance issues. But there is no doubt this one wasnt a balance issue. It was a big shot though.

 

A random shortlist of mentioned boxers that have caught my eye and that I agree with-

James Toney
Naseem Hamed
Micky Walker (I nearly typed in Mickey O'Rourke!)
Marvin Hagler
Carlos Monzon
Pernell Whitaker
Chris Eubank
Oliver McCall

In my opinion, these are the iron men worth paying attention to, because all of them combined a very solid chin with excellent defensive skills. Ok, so Naseem Hamed may have had a very unorthodox defense that could get him knocked down from balance (ie. the Kevin Kelly fight) but it took an ATG in the form of Marco Antonio Barrera to land frequently on him. Ditto Chris Eubank, who also had ridiculous recovery skills (his first punch off the floor could knock down world class boxers like Michael Watson).

The golden path to being unstoppable (and certainly unknockoutable) requires BOTH a steel chin and a good defense. The only exception is really Oliver McCall, but he kept his defense tight enough to stop himself from receiving sustained punishment from Frank Bruno, who could have stopped him on his feet or on cuts. Short of a mental breakdown, McCall is pretty unstoppable.

However, I still think that the most impressive boxers on the list are Walker, Toney, Hamed, Eubank and Whitaker, because they didn't have the comfort of staying in one weight division. Hamed is the least impressive on the list, because he didn't make such a big leap as the others. It's very hard to make a choice between the lot; I suppose, in a pure sense (ie. not p4p) Toney is the most impressive, because even heavyweights couldn't come close to knocking him out.

 

The Johnson KD was a balance also. Reggie caught Toney with a punch when both his feet were parallel to each other. Toney wasn't visibly hurt by them, the way he covered up was usual thing for him to do, and take a look how he almost tricked Johnson, throwing a counter.

 

I watched it on youtube. Toney was hit flush by a full-force left hand from Johnson, but the way he fell (hands outstretched to break his fall) and got up (after about one and a half seconds) suggests that this was very much a balance KD. He was no more hurt than when Peter knocked him down with that jab; in fact, the knockdowns were almost identical. I don't see how Toney fighting defensively when Johnson unloaded a salvo proves anything other than the fact that Toney knows how to box.

 

Ali took a fully powered right from Earnie Shavers and managed to stay upright.

George Chuvalo made a fighting style out of his chin.

Jake 'he didn't knock me down' Lamotta.

 

Hagler is a good pick, but he never test himself at limits (as Michael Spinks fight for example). So Robinson is a perfect pick.
if to take example from HW div, than the one and only Oliver McCall, who tested by hundreds of vicious sparr rounds with prime Tyson, tested by clean shots from ATG hard-hitter Lewis, from very strong puncher Bruno, and hard-hitting Williamson and Butler etc. And he was never even close to KD while taking a number of punches.