How Does a Fighter Lose His Chin?

[Kel]

Im of the thought that once you have been out cold unless you are of very stern stuff ;or you rebuild up your beard again with some very hard sparring and serious testing in slow stages:You could have a problem.

Other wise for many the original spark out can pave the way to you going out to it a touch easier the next time around and so on and so forth. Our cells have a memory as does the shut down process and also the fight or flight process . If it helped us to survive a bad situation once, its not unheard of in some situations (Not always fighting) to automatically and subconsciously head for the shut down mode the next time around.

That's interesting stuff and I think it's basically like that, like a primal 'play dead' shut down feature. I think seeing the punch coming has a LOT to do with how that works out too.

Good question Vintage

[CGM]

There must be something in it, as we hear it said about boxers quite often.

Also, ray mercer comes to mind. He once had a granite chin. But with him, his knockout losses might had more to do with being too old and lacking any ambition

Well, we've heard it said about Hatton enough times,that's for sure. The evidence is not conclusive though. Maybe it sounds better than being "totally outboxed and outpunched" And yeah, that punch would have KO'd a few people.

But I suppose that conditioning might have something to do with it. Perhaps we can learn something from the story of Eric Lindros who suffered repeatedly from concussions throughout his hockey career. Just bad luck? Did he become physically more vulnerable to KO as time went on? I'm not sure that was ever proven as a reason. Anyone who saw that hit from Kirk Stevens would know you didn't have to be prone to concussions to be KO's from that one.

[Kirkland Laing]

If you get punched in the head thousands of times over the course of a career's fighting and sparring then it's inevitably going to have a cumulative effect. Add on the physical drain of making the same weight over a period of years when you're getting naturally bigger, bad living habits away from the ring etc. and it's understandable that your general physical condition will deteriorate from what it once was. If you've had a few good batterings and a couple of sparkings over a bunch of tough fights then you're not going to be what you once were.

[JazMerkin]

I think with Hatton particularly, the effect of getting KO'd by Mayweather affected him badly mentally. He went into that fight talking about how his chin could take all Tszyu had to give, so Mayweather would have nothing. He also made a point of him not being a proper welterweight (funny how things change ) when compared to Collazo. I think then getting KTFO by a guy who he thought he could walk through (not that he learned from that ) had an effect that he was getting buzzed off the slightest punch as a mental thing. I remember even Paulie managed to hit him with a punch that looked like it hurt him. So I wouldn't be surprised if there is a mental aspect to it.

[Dean Duke]

Last time I looked on the Hatton site it looked like four chins

I do think J. Undisputed post sums it all up TBH.

[generalbulldog]

There must be something in it, as we hear it said about boxers quite often.

Also, ray mercer comes to mind. He once had a granite chin. But with him, his knockout losses might had more to do with being too old and lacking any ambition

Well, we've heard it said about Hatton enough times,that's for sure. The evidence is not conclusive though. Maybe it sounds better than being "totally outboxed and outpunched" And yeah, that punch would have KO'd a few people.

But I suppose that conditioning might have something to do with it. Perhaps we can learn something from the story of Eric Lindros who suffered repeatedly from concussions throughout his hockey career. Just bad luck? Did he become physically more vulnerable to KO as time went on? I'm not sure that was ever proven as a reason. Anyone who saw that hit from Kirk Stevens would know you didn't have to be prone to concussions to be KO's from that one.

I swear Ricky Hatton is like the 140 pound version of Mike Tyson in that he has the most fans with all sort of excuses on this and that. This might sound really crazy, but maybe just maybe, the other guy (Pacman) was better than him? I know it's a shocking statement isn't it?

[ElTerribleMorales]

simple, relying on your chin too much, this is what happened with Morales, he chose to rely on his chin instead of his boxing skills most the time, and well his resistance was worn down, same can be said about Margarito, Hatton, and McCullough

[JonnyFolds]

There must be something in it, as we hear it said about boxers quite often.

Also, ray mercer comes to mind. He once had a granite chin. But with him, his knockout losses might had more to do with being too old and lacking any ambition

Well, we've heard it said about Hatton enough times,that's for sure. The evidence is not conclusive though. Maybe it sounds better than being "totally outboxed and outpunched" And yeah, that punch would have KO'd a few people.

But I suppose that conditioning might have something to do with it. Perhaps we can learn something from the story of Eric Lindros who suffered repeatedly from concussions throughout his hockey career. Just bad luck? Did he become physically more vulnerable to KO as time went on? I'm not sure that was ever proven as a reason. Anyone who saw that hit from Kirk Stevens would know you didn't have to be prone to concussions to be KO's from that one.

I swear Ricky Hatton is like the 140 pound version of Mike Tyson in that he has the most fans with all sort of excuses on this and that. This might sound really crazy, but maybe just maybe, the other guy (Pacman) was better than him? I know it's a shocking statement isn't it?

I wish you guys would just see that Hatton is a more skilled and well rounded fighter than Pac man. He can beat all types of fighters. Pacquiao is garbage. He can only beat white people and old men. His ethnic KO percentage sucks and he's small. Also I heard his weener is really really small and Hatton's is huge.

So if you guys want to back the guy with the small wang, go ahead. But I am sticking wiht my guns. Hatton ATG.

[JonnyFolds]

Oh yeah and in response to the thread..

I think a lot of this has to do with "rolling with the punches." Mosley, Campbell, and BHop do it surprisingly well for their age. The punches seem to "slide" off of them. This can be increasingly difficult with age as your split second reaction gets worse and worse. A flying fist can do much more damage to a stationary target!

I really like the stuff about the concussions. Look at troy Aikman after someone "broke the seal" on concussions for him it was back to back to back. He seems to have his whits about him while commentating.

[DaxxKahn]

Im of the thought that once you have been out cold unless you are of very stern stuff ;or you rebuild up your beard again with some very hard sparring and serious testing in slow stages:You could have a problem.

Other wise for many the original spark out can pave the way to you going out to it a touch easier the next time around and so on and so forth. Our cells have a memory as does the shut down process and also the fight or flight process . If it helped us to survive a bad situation once, its not unheard of in some situations (Not always fighting) to automatically and subconsciously head for the shut down mode the next time around.

Pretty much how I was always described it...After a severe trauma the body installs a self safety so to speak.....

Some guys can take abuse all their lives and never have that one big moment where they are damaged enough to have the body do this....some always have it...

In the end your body knows what is best for you and when its time to shut off it does

[God.in.my.corner]

I think once you have been truely knocked out the memory (and fear) is always there. Deep in the subconscious, you know that you are vulnurable, and I think the mindset of the fighter changes. This coupled with getting older, I think some of that edge is lost. And I do agree the body installs a "safety switch" that prevents future damage.

If a person has never been knocked out, it's a strange response for the body. The body dosent know what to do. After several times, it may become routine.

[paddy448]

i dont no the exact science behind the whole punch resistance thing, but i think its just wear and tear over the years of getting tagged, there is no way hatton could keep taking the bombs he did like he did in tyszu fight, i actually think the tyszu fight was his most damaging fight, but back then he was fresh not many miles on the clock,i think that the tyszu fight took alot out of ricky, it must of done, he was getting tagged harder in that fight than in the mayweather,collazo or pacman fights,but he couldnt take there shots, imagine ricky of today trying to walk thru the shots that he did against tyszu back in 05, hatton

[holmcall]

One way is by being concussed as in Maskiev. Another is through constantly dehydrating and messing with your diet as in Ricky. In my opinion, once it happens, it will repeat itself more often. Leon Spinks got iced by Gerrie Coetzee and then suffreed 7 or 8 more icings during the rest of his craeer. When Cobb's time came, he was bounced up and down the canvas like a yo yo by big Dee Collier, but in actuality, he had been decked the fight before by Eddie Gregg. It happens.

[Spicoli]

Think mentality plays a big factor as well.Its easy to go down,much harder to get up...a guy might become used to being hurt/dropped...almost except it more easily once it happens.Have always thought relying on "a great chin" can get a guy into heaps of trouble,and in some cases its not a compliment.

[Chris Nagel]

It's the punch you don't see coming that rocks you the most. I'd wager that fighters that are skilled in seeing the punches coming tend to take punches better than most.