Who has the best chin in MMA history?

Best chin in MMA history?

  • Marvin Vettori

  • Mark Hunt

  • Max Holloway

  • Roy Nelson

  • John Lineker

  • Carlos Condit

  • Other


Results are only viewable after voting.
I don't recall hendo landing clean on Silva, no one really did. He was so good at rolling his chin at the last second it looked like he was taking damage but it just wasn't connecting with all the power. Like when he let bonnar tee off on him against the cage.
He landed really clean, classic Hendo shots and Anderson just walked through them unphased. I can't find the gif I've seen with the best angle but check the sequence from around 1'10 in this video:

 
Legitimately the worst refereeing performance in MMA history

If Frank died, Dan should've been charged with manslaughter

You're not wrong, but that was when Dan was practically a rookie in the big leagues.

He's become one of the best refs since then.
 
He landed really clean, classic Hendo shots and Anderson just walked through them unphased. I can't find the gif I've seen with the best angle but check the sequence from around 1'10 in this video:



I don't feel like any of that landed flush lol. Silva was so good at turning his chin at the last second it's makes it look like the punch is turning his chin. If you watch that exchange at x.25 speed you can see that, yes, hendo connected, but it was just not at the right distance to create the big power he usually generates. Even when they were in the clinch and hendo threw the knee Silva lifted himself with his toes before the knee landed so that it wasn't able to land without power. I do agree he had a great chin but I still stand by my first comment that it was a lot more head movement than actual chin.
 
Having a great chin and having the mental fortitude to keep the poker face and tough it out are two different things. Tony didn’t have the greatest chin but he damn sure was tougher than almost anyone ever, so he was basically impossible to finish until he got old.

Obviously Condit, Max, and Hunt are in the convo.

JDS has one of the best chins of all time, the dude just didn’t wanna take the damage later in his career. But has he ever actually been put out? Same thing with Francis, he survived 4 rounds with Stipe on chin and toughness alone while completely gassed. Watching JDS vs Cain and Stipe vs Francis were legendary displays of chin & heart.

Rampage? Dudes head was a block, the beating he took before being KO’d by Wand is legendary.

Jones and Max are mandatory, Jones might have the goat chin, it’s just that his defense is so good he doesn’t need to rely on it.

Anderson has the longest title reign ever and was only knocked down twice in his reign off the top of my head, one during a fight against Chael where he was partially off balance, and the first Weidman fight where he was totally vulnerable. Both of those times Anderson looked human he was already in his mid to late thirties. During his peak he was taking bombs and asking for more from dudes like Hendo, literally overwhelming Hendo to the point where Hendo broke and went for a terrible takedown. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone do that to Dan.

Hendo? Dude didn’t lose by KO till he was fighting TRT Vitor as an old man.

DC had a ridiculous chin too, and it carried over across two divisions. Only lost by TKO/KO to the two goats of their respective divisions in the UFC. Clearly past his best in the Stipe fight, and he stayed standing despite a devastating kick from Jones and needed goat tier ground and pound to be put out.

BJ Penn had a goat tier chin, he had no business fighting someone like Rory and he stood his ground like few ever could.

Can’t believe I forgot Roy Nelson, goat tier heavy chin as well.

Sakuraba can never be forgotten, he lost by finish quite a few times but he was fighting dudes like Igor and Wand, like wtf. We saw what happened when Max fought up one weight class and was getting beaten around the octagon by Dustin. Saku must always be mentioned, his degree of difficulty was another level from near everyone on the list.


There’s too many to name, but I honestly think JDS, Hunt, Francis, and Jones are the most formidable human beings to put away in their primes, while guys like Max, Hendo, Andy, Condit, Rampage, Lineker, Romero, Vettori, Saku, BJ, etc have good PFP arguments.
 
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Ngannou if you're talking who had the single most powerful strikes (longer arms, more speed)

However I believe Carwin could generate power from short distances like no one I've ever seen
Good post, I always like to use boxing to compare those two, Carwin had more of a thudding, George Foreman power, where as Francis has that wild, Wilder power. Kinda slightly different, but both absurdly powerful in their own way!
 
Big Nog
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Why you saying it like that? I'm only using your logic, so Ngannou has to have the better chin using your logic.

Also Hunt being ko'd by the smaller fighter in a MW puts a question mark on that chin. Robbie never got slept by that same dude.

Do you see Lawler being able to take Cro Cop's head kick? Getting knocked out or rocked will always be a complicated subject. There are shots that rock you and for some reason, when you get hit again for some reason it clears your head. It's never as simple "Well, this guy didn't get knocked out by this guy and that guy did by that guy"
 
I voted Hunt based on two cemeteries that didn't separate his head from his shoulders, and fighting on to decisions both times, but Fujita actually survived an Uberknee that would have made anyone else's head look like that Scanners meme. He was put into a coma, but he lived. His melon actually absorbed the force of the blow entirely, and, good thing, bc if he hadn't made that sacrifice that knee would have blown up the entire Tokyo metro.
 
Add cm punk to the list, guy never got close to having his lights turned out.
 
My opinion

1. Marvin Vettori
2. Mark Hunt
3. Max Holloway
4. Roy Nelson
5. John Lineker
6. Carlos Condit
Not in MMA but George Chuvalo had the best chin in combat sports. Number two is not even close.
 
A long career of facing hard hitters and actually being shown to absorb a lot of vicious strikes without getting ko'd. That would be my criteria. I would say Roy Nelson.

Hunt took 2 head kicks from prime Cro Cop and didn't get KOd

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The kick in Pride did not land as well as the kick in K-1. If it did and Cro Cop was allowed to GnP he would have put Hunt to sleep.
 
Go watch round 3 and 5 of Vettori vs Cannonier and tell me its anyone other than Vettori.

That would have killed most men.
 
Do you see Lawler being able to take Cro Cop's head kick? Getting knocked out or rocked will always be a complicated subject. There are shots that rock you and for some reason, when you get hit again for some reason it clears your head. It's never as simple "Well, this guy didn't get knocked out by this guy and that guy did by that guy"
But dudes whole premise was Hunt took shots from all these guys bigger than him and ate them (though hes been ko'd clean before) yet yet yet Hunt gets KO'd by a MW, who is much smaller than Hunt, who couldn't even finish Robbie with any strikes, who is a ww.
 
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