Was Roy's chin always as bad as it is now, and he just covered it up with great reflexes? I mean, he got floored by a guy with only 4 KOs. Granted, he was BEYOND shot, but still....
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Was Roy's chin always as bad as it is now, and he just covered it up with great reflexes? I mean, he got floored by a guy with only 4 KOs. Granted, he was BEYOND shot, but still....
Roy doesn't/didn't really have a bad chin. If you're gonna base your defense on reflexes and fight with your hands down you're gonna get get cracked good and proper every now and then. Once you lose a step you've had it.
Just because a fighter has never been stopped, it doesn't necessarily mean they have a stronger chin than one that has numerous KO losses. A defensive minded fighter gets hit less than an offensive minded one. Does Floyd have a better chin than Gatti? I don't think so.
I don't think he had the glass jaw that a lot of people think he did. He had a decent chin. He never got hit much back in the day (and when he did he was usually rolling with it), but I've seen him tagged clean by some decent punchers and take it well.
Modern Jones though, you have to take into account the fact that he's 44 and physically shot at this time, and he's taking bombs from big cruiserweights. And he doesn't have the reflexes anymore to avoid all the big bombs or roll with them.
Agree totally except the Gatti example is probably a bit extreme;D Floyd never gets completely blindsided and has much better recuperative ability though, so on chin alone you could be right. I'm just thinking the punch that Mosley landed on him would have probably pancaked Gatti, and Floyd really didn't see that one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fenster
Roy took a lot of flush shots against Tarver in their first fight and was only ever maybe rocked a little bit, he was not chinny imo. After getting caught with a monster punch in the rematch I suspect it shattered his confidence in his own ability. If you're genuinely terrified of getting iced out it makes it that much more likely to happen, not to mention his reflexes rapidly failed him at the same time. All we eventually learned was that his chin wasn't great, not that it was ever bad.
I think Whittaker is a good example of the same decline, only he had a wicked jaw all along. Completely relied on his reflexes, was so elusive that he'd never had to demonstrate a great chin in his prime. Once he was physically shot we learned that he in fact was tough as all hell to boot.