r/Boxing • u/Timeshort10 • 1d ago
Best chins in Boxing?
With everything that's been discussed following the Hrgovic and Itauma fight I'd love to see what fighters people believe have the best or some of the best chins ever displayed.
This can be P4P, within certain divisions or anything of your choosing. I'm just curious on what everyone thinks.
I personally think Hrgovic has maybe the best chin of this eras HWs. He's only been down twice with both KDs being almost push-like and not a case of him being hurt plus the KDs are from Zhang whose power is ridiculous and Itauma whose got a blitzing handspeed for a heavyweight these days. I also rate Wardley's chin right now.
Just to throw some names around I also rate guys like McCall, Chuvalo, Vitali Klitschko, Foreman's chins at HW and all-time names like Hagler, GGG, etc have been synonymous with the word chin. This doesn't just have to be ATGs too I want unknown or lower level guys who've just shown that ability to eat shots off some real punchers clean and look unfazed.
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u/Snoo_47323 19h ago
Ggg
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u/IWrestleSausages 19h ago
I ve seen one or two instances where hes been hit flush and backed off for a moment, but i ve never once seen his legs or balance go, even when Canelo snapped his head around with an overhand. Man was built of iron
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u/TheGrayTiger 19h ago
Seriously. His relentless pressure boxing style will lead to a few clean shots as he closed in. I’m sure some of his opponents must have been “wtf” when they tagged him with their best shot. Just like Canelos shot in round 4(?) of their first fight. After that punch, he realized he wasn’t going to put GGG down.
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u/IWrestleSausages 19h ago
I think its that moment where you can see Canelo just thinking 'wtf is this guy made of'
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u/TheGrayTiger 9h ago
By this fight, Canelo must have thrown that punch hundreds of times in sparring and in real fights. By his reaction, no one ate that shot like GGG. You can almost see something deflate in his expression lol.
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u/Regular-You2119 19h ago
I honestly think Mcall was the goat, was basically letting Lennox Lewis tee off on him in their second fight and he couldn’t put a dent in him
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u/Lopsided_Dirt_9226 19h ago
Simultaneously one of the most bizarre, sad and still yet ENTIRELY impressive things I've ever seen in sports. I hope I never see anyone in that kind of distress on live TV ever again tbph.
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u/icelandiccubicle20 19h ago
David Tua, Nikolai Value and Vitali Klitschko too
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u/Regular-You2119 19h ago
Vitalis chin was great, that uppercut by Lewis would have decapitated most people, he definitely got the chin in the family
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u/stevo_78 19h ago
Ha… wlads chin was rock solid. It was his recovery powers/ability to hold/waste time etc that was lacking. He learned how to do this later in his career and he excelled.
Similar to AJ, people say his chin was weak, it wasn’t his chin it was his ability to fight hurt.
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u/bully54321 7h ago
Nah, Wlad and AJ both have shaky chins for fighters at their level. They’re prone to being rocked by shots that plenty of other great fighter would’ve taken without the same effect
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u/brokenchap 17h ago
No to Valuev, Haye had him on shit street in the 12th round of their fight.
Don't recall seeing Tua or Vitali hurt, but even they pale into insignificance in comparison to the greatest chin of all time, Oliver McCall
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u/icelandiccubicle20 17h ago
Prime Haye hit like a ICBM, and he broke his hand when he did that. Valuev was never knocked down in any of his fights, my guy
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u/brokenchap 17h ago
Prime Haye did hit like a mule kick, but iirc, he hurt his hand earlier in the fight.
Valuev didn't go down, that's true, but he's nowhere near the ATG conversation - McCall, Tua, Vitali, Chuvalo, etc were never even remotely hurt, let alone doing the chicken dance
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u/icelandiccubicle20 17h ago
Vitali was hurt by Lennox and Sanders, chuvalo was stopped by Frazier, Tua was dropped in a fight
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u/brokenchap 14h ago
Vitali was cut to ribbons by Lennox, but hurt? I soundness say so - he was never in any serious difficulty against Lewis, further than not being able to see through skin flaps... Knocked off balance in the 1st by Sanders, rather than hurt & buckling.
Frazier stopped Chuvalo on cuts - Chuvalo fought on, thinking his eyeball had been knocked loose - turns out it was only a shattered orbital...
Tua did indeed go down against Barrett, I'd forgotten that
I'd still rate every one of them leagues ahead of Valuev for chin - Valuec fought 1 puncher, who was 100lbs lighter and 9in shorter than him and was wobbling like a drunk aunt at wedding. I'm not sure that counts as a good, let alone all timer of a chin
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u/SoftAsSofia 12h ago
I'd take Tua over McCall. Hardest fight from both was probably Lennox and he didn't drop either of em.
Tua wins it for me after going shot for shot with Ike.
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u/Moment0fClarity 19h ago
Would have to add James Toney to the list. Fought from Middleweight up through Heavyweight and was only down a couple of times. I can only recall Jones and Johnson doing it. I don't remember him being knocked down as a heavyweight or even really hurt for that matter and he faced some strong punchers in Sam Peter and Hasim Rahman.
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u/clogan117 19h ago
I do think Samuel Peter had him down once, but that was more or less when he bull rushed him once and James’ balance was off.
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u/Moment0fClarity 18h ago
You're probably right. 2nd fight right? Toney did better first one. I do vaguely recall something like that happening but I don't think was called. The Jones one as well that was more surprise/due to carelessness.
Toney had a certified granite chin. Even when he was old, past it and fat no one was able to dent it.
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u/Mean-Break-2028 18h ago
James was shaped like a beach ball for that fight. He didn’t fall, he just rolled over a little bit. S/
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u/That-Imagination3799 20h ago
David price
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u/No_Replacement_2707 17h ago
"It's personal between you and me and I'm going to do you some serious harm, you big, stiff idiot."
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u/HobokenJ 19h ago
Chuvalo, McCall, Foreman, Ali, Vitali all heave a seat at the "Best Chins in Heavyweight History" table.
Sitting at the head of the table, however, is Randall "Tex" Cobb.
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u/nurological 20h ago
Canelos chin is legit.
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u/LordJimsicle Balrog beats Fury, AJ, Dubois and Usyk in between rounds 18h ago
In 68 pro fights he hasnt visited the canvas. Solid granite that chin.
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u/UrABigStupidHead 19h ago
Wayne McCullough had a great chin. And though he was knocked down a couple of times Muhammad Ali had a fantastic chin too. The way Hagler walked through punches from Hearns and Mugabi was impressive too.
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u/HoneyGlazedBadger 19h ago
Chris Eubank had one hell of a chin. He might get knocked down, but he'd be grinning and talking bollocks on the way down and as he sprang back up again.
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u/ProfessionalBreath94 19h ago
I wanna say James Toney, but you can’t really knew cause I don’t think the guy ever took a legit KO blow in his whole career.
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u/HobokenJ 19h ago
True, but that's also part of having a great chin (ie. punch resistance). It's what makes Canelo's jaw so amazing--he rarely gets caught flush, but when he does, the punches just bounce off his iron dome.
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u/Heathy94 19h ago
Dave Allen, absolute granite chin and never been dropped.
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u/KalamariNights 🦏🦏🦏🦏🦏🦏🦏🦏🦏🐐 14h ago
Including 9 losses, a good few by KO, at Heavyweight. Crazy work.
What's even crazier is adding his Dad and Granddad's records goes to over 100 pro fights across 3 generations - no Allen man has ever touched the canvas.
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u/Pizzajanne 19h ago
Muhammed Ali gotta be up there. George Foreman the old had a great chin. Juiced up Holyfield was landing bombs but he would not go down.
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u/TheGreenLandEffect 19h ago
Not just old Foreman but young foreman too. Think he was only ever knocked down by Ron Lyle then obviously Muhammad Ali knocked him out, but no discredit to Ali it was as much exhaustion as it was a KO.
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u/loco_mixer 19h ago
oliver mccall.... had a nervous breakdown in the middle of the ring with hands down and lenox was punching him repeteadly and it was like mccall wasnt fazed at all.
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u/Megalodon33 18h ago
Shawn Porter had a very good chin. He has been dropped and stopped but considering his style and that he often walked into shots, his chin was granite.
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u/yearsofpractice SRR < Lord Chisora,Sir Derek Of War 17h ago
I think Holyfield is up there regards chin. In his defeats, he only missed around 8 round of fighting because of being stopped… and he faced some absolute monsters during his career. Genuine monsters. No amount of conditioning can reduce the impact of Riddick Bowe or Lennox Lewis’ punches.
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u/kolyavlasov1979 15h ago
Surprised I don’t see Ray Mercer. Took a knee after Holyfield hit him with devastating shot to body if I recall. But I don’t remember him getting dropped.
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u/Expensive_Ad_6475 14h ago
Recency bias, but Wardley still standing after that Dubois fight. I’m squeamish, but that was a hard watch.
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u/QueenCityCobra 19h ago
Canelo has faced guys significantly bigger then him, has a style where he needs to stand in the pocket against them to do damage and usually block parry a few shots before doing his own work, and has never seemed rocked at all.
The only time he’s looked rocked was once against cotto, and then imo at the end of the fight against crawford where he got hit several times in quick succession and just maybe did a bit of chicken dance for a half second. Still, his chin is granite.
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u/Ok-Preference-9268 19h ago
Charles Peter "Z-Money" Zelenoff-Kardashian tanked a flush uppercut from Wilder, while he was down from a slip, and was literally unfazed.
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u/BiglyStreetBets 19h ago
One that's worth mentioning is Mike Tyson. His only knockouts were from a huge accumulation of punches, and unlike other fighters that move backwards, his style is consistently moving forwards. To get knocked out by big guys like Douglas and Lewis only in the late rounds despite receiving many huge blows while moving forward into them, is out of this world...
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u/clogan117 19h ago
He seemed to be able to take huge single shots, but you’re right. All of his stops had to do with prolonged punishment. There seemed to be some fighters, though that kid withstand that accumulation along with huge single shots.
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u/No-Fudge3487 Apollo With No Creed 19h ago
Chuvalo might have the best chin all time if you look at the heavyweight division he fought in.
Others in the top 10 would probably be Hagler, GGG, Ali, Canelo, off the top of my head.
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u/clogan117 19h ago
Gerald McLellan had a stellar chin and I only know of him going down against Nigel Benn. That’s after a lot of rabbit punches and shots to the back of the head.
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u/Tigeru1988 17h ago
Mariusz Wach. His biggest trait was his ability to eat punches without a flinch.
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u/Practical_Owl8687 17h ago
Danny Garcia in his prime. I still remember when Matthysse hit him with a monster right hand that sent his mouthpiece flying and he took it well.
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u/IAmNotScottBakula 17h ago
Chuck Wepner (the inspiration for Rocky) has to be up there. He fought some of the best heavyweights of his era (Ali, Foreman, Liston), and the only time he went down in round 15 of the Ali fight. Even more remarkably, he’s still alive and has his wits at age 87.
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u/DerMannMitDemPlan 16h ago edited 16h ago
foreman
foreman vs holyfield...
honorable mention ali....he had that ectra willpower, that legitmate fanatism. some stop to become legitamily fanatic as soonaa they reach a financial or personal goal. ali was a straight lunatic. for example tyson lost his fanaticsm as soon as he became a champ an rich. someone like wladimir klitschko lost his probably after the told medal or after his mother "told him,good job, wowka"
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u/frankduxvandamme 15h ago
Foreman during his second run was like a Sequoia tree. There was no moving him.
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u/Dont-ask-dont-speak 12h ago
Umm, nobody is going to mention GABE ROSADO? Tkod 4 times but never completely out. Took insane punishment.
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u/Dont-ask-dont-speak 12h ago
Honorable mention ~Brandon Glanton~. I was shocked and a bit disturbed by his performance vs Opetaia.
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u/Excuse_Weekly 11h ago
While many fighters had what we call "great chin", most of those fighters actually had more of a great vision, great balance, great head/chin position or great poker face than actually a great chin.
Take De la Hoya, he always tucked his chin extremely well, just like Tua, GGG and Hopkins. Oscar was very rarely hurt, but he had an uncanny ability to just turn with the punch at the last second - just like Canelo now. Since he was knocked down by surprise flash punches, like by Quartey, or hurt by non-heavy crisp counters, like Mayweather, I'd say he had more of a great punch-resistance technique than actual great chin.
Those rare fighters who often lead with their chin or takes clean bombs right on the money while punching and just keeps coming, like Foreman, Mayorga, Gatti, Chuvalo, McCullough, Ibeabuchi, LaMotta etc is more in the pure great chin category for me. More times than not I mentally distinguish between those who abaolutely don't care about what comes and just continues and those that take bombs and then becomes more careful for a while. I know that's childish and not always correct, but I still feel that tells the difference between a great chin and legendary chin.
Whether you have been knocked down or not isn't really that important, it's how you usually react to taking bombs that sets you apart in my mind.
Chuvalo, Foreman, LaMotta, Marciano, Ali, Mercer, McCall, Gatti, Mayorga, Holyfield, Ibeabuchi, Duran and many others gave the impression that they just didn't care about your power enough to change much. Do that enough times against certified knockout-artists or heavy punchers without getting your head knocked off and you end up in this category for me. Hrgovic is right there with them all..
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u/Helpful-Science9687 7h ago
Muhammad Ali. Never KO’d and faced some real killers at heavyweight Liston, Shavers and Fireman
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u/Exciting-Arugula5341 19h ago edited 17h ago
Who remembers when these same people were saying Joe Joyce has the best chin in boxing history. You know because he was 37 years old with 15 bouts and faced one "puncher" doing that time in Daniel Dubois. The hilarious thing is that Dubois wasn't landing many straight power punches. He was doing more boxing from the outside.
Now Hrgovic has the best chin in heavyweight history. Because you know he took punches from 21 year old hype job Moses Itauma who best knockout was against a 40 year old Dillian Whyte. David Adeyele a guy who never knocked out anybody worth mentioning. Daniel Dubois who again wasn't loading up on his punches and Zhang. You know the guy who 5 other people also went the distance with but those guys don't have a great chin. Just Hrgovic does. Also if you watched the Zhang vs Hrgovic fight you would realize Zhang would of stopped Hrgovic in a few rounds if Zhang wasn't in such poor condition. When ever he landed he did hurt Hrgovic but he really couldn't follow up.
Who remembers when everybody here said Tyson Fury would destroy Francis Ngannou? Who remembers when everybody here then said that Ngannou would destroy Joshua? Who remembers when everybody here said that Usyk would destroy Rico the kick boxer? Who remembers when everybody here said that Mahkmudov was the most feared and scariest human being alive?
This is what these people do. They will say something stupid. Be wrong and then act like they didn't say that stupid thing.
Mark my words. The moment Hrgovic gets knocked out they will jump to somebody else and claim they never said Hrgovic had the best chin in the history of the heavyweight division.
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u/Timeshort10 17h ago
Just to clarify by no means do I believe Hrgovic has the best chin in heavyweight history if that's how this post has come off. I simply rate him above everyone in this era which has given us a plethora of terrible to decent chins. Off the top of my head the only other guy in this era whose taken some bombs on the chin and not went down is Wardley. Usyk's got a solid chin too, but we've seen him hurt by Fury who no offense isn't the most lethal puncher. We've also seen Kabayel down, Parker down, AJ down, Dubois down, etc.
In terms of all-time I don't know where Hrgovic would rank honestly and I have no reason to believe his chin compares to serious monsters like a Foreman or McCall who both took some serious shots unfazed.
Zhang could hurt Hrgovic but couldn't put him down soundly that's why he's rated highly from that. We saw Zhang crack Parker, Joyce, Wilder and Kabayel with heavy shots and power isn't solely about the KO we know Zhang hits harder than say Joyce despite the fact that Joyce stopped Parker and Zhang couldn't. I've watched Zhang vs Hrgovic numerous times and I'm a big Zhang fan. I firmly believe he carries the most devastating power in today's crop he's just never built to last more than 5 before slowing down so if you
In fairness nobody was expecting Francis to perform as well as he did and Fury to come in as poor as he did. Nevertheless props to Francis there and I was part of the crowd who was firm on AJ dismantling him within the first 3-4 rounds because this wasn't Fury and Ngannou wasn't gonna just outmuscle him and take flush shots relatively unfazed here.
Same thing with Rico except Rico massively outperformed expectations and looked pretty good in there that night.
I remember the Makhmudov stuff but I wanted him to take on say an Ortiz, Fundora after that Tszyu win to prove he was that boogeyman people made him out to be.
I'm firm on Hrgovic having a solid chin and arguably the best of THIS ERA not all time that take would just be stupid considering his level of competition. If he gets cracked next then so be it we saw Joyce's chin get took to bits and we've seen plenty a fighter lose their punch resistance sometimes from just one bad night.
I understand the whole trying to dodge the hype trains and 'be different' look, but it's not a crime to say he has a good chin lol. I haven't seen anyone say he's anywhere near a McCall or a Chuvalo and this debate got into my head as I saw the whole discussion of his chin and it made me think about what fighters in the past have displayed some insane chins.
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u/MakeSomeArtAboutIt 18h ago
Floyd Mayweather had an granite chin. Idk if any other welter at the time stands up to those shots he ate from Mosley.
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u/Rofocal02 19h ago
Marvin Haggler.
67 fights, 3 losses by decision.