-He's never been KO'd, only TKO'd. He has risen from every knockdown and then been stopped. The Purrity and Brewster TKO's are clearly exhaustion rather than punch accumulation. Sanders was a KO artist who has the assets to upset any HW in history. -He is a HEAVYWEIGHT, a division where more than any other, a single punch changes everything. -His biggest issue after taking a big shot was his reaction more than his chin. In his younger days, Wlad simply tried to slug it out when hurt, and his chin is simply not good enough for that. We saw Mayweather clutch Mosley's arm for dear life for 10 seconds after taking a big shot, Wlad didn't have that in his arsenal pre-Steward. -He has dominated far longer than a glass jawed fighter ever could. He has defeated monstrous punchers and been tagged by them. Wlad does get hit in his fights, just not against guys like Lepai.
His chin isn't great but it's not horrible either. However, he does have a shaky chin. It's his defensive style/improvements(thanks to Steward, Rest in Peace) that has protected him for a decade now which is amazing nevertheless.
Yeah Wlads chin is definitely better than most give him credit for... Definitely not iron, but it's serviceable. The Sanders loss was the one where he was legitimately stopped and where chin played a role.
I agree with pretty much everything you said, except the part about Leapai not hitting him. Alex definitely clipped him a couple times and Wlad stumbled a bit, but maintained his composure and carried on.
It's obvious. Even in the fights he has been stopped, he has taken an insane amount of damage, and he was always vertical on his feets. The only suspect fight is the Sanders one, but as it's clear in slow motion, Sanders landed various full-force headbutts in the brawl, and those are the ones hurting Wlad, more than the other punches. Additionally, it would have been enough to just shell up and run away or clinch, in the second round, to pass the storm and let Sanders gass himself out, like every remotely savy boxer would have done. It would have even been enough for the trainer to tell Wlad to do just that, but his at time trainer, Szdunek, was incompetent like it's rare to find, and more clueless and surprised than anyone else there. In fact, the wars Wlad have been in just shows how good is chin is; a glass chin wouldn't have resisted 11 rounds with all the full force bombs Puritty was landing easily on it. And the Brewster fight... think what you want, but Wlad had some clear trouble that night, poison or not, even Steward said that. He said that he can recognize when someone is hurt from punches (who can doubt that), and that wasn't the problem with Wlad. He said he was in perfect shape the days before the fight, but it's self evident that Wlad is a ghost of himself at fight night. He looked tired and out of his mind already while walking to the ring, for ****'s sake! He really looked like a zombie round after round, and wath about Vada destroying Wlad's blood samples to not allow anyone to see them? What about Don King being involved? C'mon, something fishy happened that night. Watch how easily an average Wlad dismantled and forced the same Brewster to quit in 6 rounds in the rematch. It wasn't even competitive, with an healthy Wlad. Those are just self evident things. Anyway it's good that this myth continues, for Wlad's career. As long as his opponents will approach him with the mentality he is a glass cannon, they'll continue to pay for their wrong and predictable approaches. They shuld better try to tire him, to make him move around, to outbox and outpoint him, to go the distance. Not that this would change much, Wlad rarely lost a round or two even against the boxers that tried this approach, but it would surely be better for them.
Being stopped 3 times in over 60 fights is not too much. It's good, in fact. Considering that both the Puritty and the Sanders losses could have easily been wide unanimous decision wins if only he had some kind of defensive strategy, and that in the Brewster fight he was a shadow of himself, for whatever reason, and how easily he avenged that fight, it could even be argued that those losses aren't even clear or significant ones. But this would be being pedantic, those losses are there and will stay, Wlad himself said that they made him better. And the almost totality of the times Wlad has been dropped have been cases of out of balance and pushing. In fact, i've yet to see a single knockdown in which Wlad looked hurt and showed wobbly legs. Not even once.
This guy has a serious hardon for Wlad. Quit coming up with excuses trying to play down Wlads stoppage losses/knockdowns as if they don't count. Sounds seriously desperate. Wlad hasn't got the best chin, and has been legitimately knocked down, wobbled and knocked out, face the facts. There is no need for you to defend him with ridiculous coulda/woulda/shouldas. His achievements since those losses speak for themselves.
Wlad's chin isn't too bad, it's his reaction to getting hit that makes it look worse. It's almost as if he believes he hasn't got a good chin and goes into panic mode.
don't know how to break it to you, but its the confusion caused by his weak chin getting hit that results in him not thinking. that's why he used to start flapping trying to hit back when he got tagged and hurt. If he was thinking clearly he wouldn't wade in brainlessly. its getting tagged that takes away his judgement. his chin is not good. nowadays he compensates by fighting those who wont tag him while he runs for 6 rounds till they gass.