Thread: Does James Toney Have The Best Ever Chin In Boxing ?

I had always believed that Wayne McCullough had the greatest chin ever, but now I'm considering a reevaluation of things.

Consider Toney:

- Never stopped in 85 fights spanning 23 years from 1988-2011, from James was 20 until his current age of 43

- Never stopped in any of the five weight classes he has competed in - middle, supermiddle, lightheavy, cruiser, heavy

- To my knowledge, has only been properly knocked down twice, once to Reggie Johnson at mw and once to Samuel Peter at hw. There was the semi-KD against Roy Jones, but that was purely a balance thing plus Toney didn't actually hit the canvas, just touched down and was forced to take a count

- IMO, has only been properly hurt once in his entire career, vs Reggie Johnson. Even then, he fought through it and won the fight

The one thing that had been missing was to see how Toney's punch resistance would hold up under a sustained beating, the kind of one-sided and punishing defeat that he's never really suffered.

Last time, Toney suffered that defeat to Denis Lebedev.

Knocked off balance by punches a few times, taking many many clean shots throughout the fight, Toney got shut-out on the cards but did not get stopped and did not get dropped. He proved his chin in a way that guys like Marvin Hagler never had to: when he was taking a shellacking.

Before he met Toney, Lebedev's previous 9 wins had all came inside the distance, giving him a record of 17 KOs in 22 wins in his career, but he didn't manage a KD against a shot version of Toney.

If ever there had been a time that JT's punch resistance was going to let him down, it was the other night. He was 43, looking flabby and out of shape, in there with a bigger man and a proven banger, and there were concerns that him burning off 50lbs for this fight would leave him weakened. The chin held firm.

Consider that James Toney has faced Hasim Rahman twice, Samuel Peter twice, and a peak Roy Jones, and has never been close to being stopped.

This is a guy who started out at middleweight, and at 5ft 9in is probably a natural middleweight/supermiddleweight. Even years and years past his prime, even ridiculously overweight and out of shape, the guy still stands toe-to-toe with natural heavyweights, and fights them, and never gets stopped.

I ask you: is he a legitimate contender for the title of GREATEST CHIN EVER? If not, why not ?

Toney is WITHOUT A DOUBT a contender for greatest chin. He always had world class defense and was very adept at rolling with the punches, but he fought huge bangers from 160 to HW and IMO the only real KD was the Reggie Johnson one (Sam Peter was more of a balance thing and Roy Jones slammed into him when he jumped in). That's an INCREDIBLE statistic. Sam Peter was mediocre but he had two sledgehammer fists.

So if we take into account A) he never had any business at HW in the first place and B) he's 43 and still not getting dropped, then yeah I'd say he deserves first class honors.

If you think about it, how many people would pick some of the greatest chins in history (hagler, lamotta, ect) to move up 3 or 4 weight classes and not get dropped or finished? It really is an incredible feat.

I usd to think Hagler had the best chin , but its hard not to at least put Toney up there with him , an amazing chin for sure.

Yeh great chin. RJJ did floor him. I always look at George Chuvalo taking 3 minutes of unanswered shots on the button from George Foreman and not going down and can't look past him for best chin (McCullough and McCall are my other pics)

James Toney has 1 of the best chins for sure. I would also put Oliver McCall in the best chins category as well.

He has a case but I dont think it's the best. There were far too many granite chinned guys to actually pick just one.

Him and In Jin Chi are way up there though..

Steve collins had a chin made of iron!!

Toney undoubtedly has a great chin. However, he also possess a great defence. A great defence means you're an expert at avoiding, blocking and parrying punches, therefore, you don't get hit as much as the norm.

Guys like Wayne McCullough have probably been hit more times in 20 fights than Toney in 40.

I think the guys with the greatest chins, even if they've been stopped, are the ones that stand-up to ridiculous amounts of punishment without having the skills of great fighters.

Toney is a great shout for best chin ever.

It's hard to compare chins as all fighters fight different opponents under different circumstances & it is impossible to know how hard each fighter was hit, but in Toney's case, to fight through so many weight classes; to compete competitively in 4 decades & still never get stopped in breathtaking

my three best chins would be wayne mccullogh,george chavulo and jake la motta.i interviewed mccullough and asked him who had the best chin in boxing bar himself he said jake la motta did

Chris Eubanks also had a great chin taking the bombs of Benn, Watson and Thompson were amazing.

It's all relative so I would argue that it is just one of the greatest, but nobody knows how to stop the man. Having injured his leg he could have wilted, but no. There is NO quit in James Toney.

A fit Toney wouldn't have been taking so many of those shots, mind.

Toney is certainly up there. He's one of the toughest men to ever box.

Chavez, Mike Tyson, Oliver McCall all had great chins as well.

Smokin' Joe had the best chin I'd ever seen and I said that way before his death too. The shots he was taking from Foreman would have killed most other men. Joe just got up and got on with it until the ref stepped in. Toney does have a great chin but Joe would never have been floored by a 168lbs Roy Jones, that shot would have bounced off!

Chris eubank , Collins , even vitali cos lennox hit him square and he just shrugged it off!