He has a glass chin…

Well, they don’t call him Joe Glass because of his chin.

Kotelnik didn’t hit Khan with anything powerful in their fight simply because he has very little power. 13 KOs in 34 pro fights isn’t exactly impressive. Also he barely hit Khan so I don’t see that fight as a test of Khan’s chin in any way.

There is a difference between recovery and chin. Marquez’s chin isn’t great but his recovery is. I have never really noticed Marquez’s balance as being particularly bad and that’s certainly not why he got knocked down against Pacquiao. For an example of recovery being far better than chin see Calzaghe. Working with Ariza to improve leg strenth will help him take punches but not a massive amount.

You are right that his defence has improved a lot but that doesn’t really make his chin much better! A clean shot from decent puncher will still have the same effectas before!

Fair enough about Prescott being a big puncher and Khan’s uncomfortableness at lightweight however the latter does not impact on chin too much. In fact if you consider that he will be getting hit by heavier punches more consistently at Junior Welter than he ever has I’m not really sure we’ll see much of a difference.

Khan is far stronger, faster, and more powerful at 140

All true but, how does that improve his chin exactly?

All in all I’m not quite sold on Khan’s chin! Sorry!

Also see http://www.badlefthook.com/2009/4/9/828687/will-khans-chin-taint-his-legacy for extra Khan chin stuff if you are so compelled!

It’s not a balance issue with him. It’s a balance issue with Gamboa, but not Khan. Look at Khan’s feet when he gets hit. They’re set. He falls over because getting hit makes him dizzy. He’s been knocked down this way by several light hitters. No question in my mind that his chin sucks.

That said, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if his chin improves at 140. If he was draining to get to 135 (which is likely), you can lose water from your inner ear, which does make your balance much worse. Thus, when you stop weight draining, you’re less likely to get dizzied.

I still like him, and I think he can be a good champ, despite his chin. I expect his career to look a bit like Wladimir Klitcshko’s – someone who’s technically sound, and who’s offense is so good that people can’t get inside on him well and he easily wins most of his fights, but every so often he’ll get knocked out because it doesn’t take much to do so on the rare occasion that someone DOES effectively get inside on him.

And FWIW, it was pretty easy to tell that Khan had a glass chin for years before he got KOed. I mean, the dude was not just knocked down but HURT against Willie Limond, who’s as light of a hitter as anyone out there.

having issues with the reply function today on here.

Rich, I normally say, ‘its just like watching the telly’… :))

Its clear that his chin Was terrible, but without a doubt I agree its now better, with reasons 1 and 5 being particularly persuasive for me, together with Brickhaus’ point on the balance with the inner ear for him at 140.

While Kotelnik doesn’t have much power, he had been dropped by clean shots from light hitters prior, notably Limond, so it was very encouraging that he took those well. No, he never got caught much, but it never previously took much/an accumulation of punches to buzz him.

Ariza and Roach believe strong legs will keep you on your feet even if you DO get rocked, i.e. even if you don’t have a stable chin.

Not having a chin, or not having a chin that can take power shots isn’t shameful, nothing that needs to be defended via fanpost. Tommy Hearns’ chin improved as he built weight in his legs, but I think everyone can agree his chin was Pottery Barn for his entire career. Doesn’t effect the quality of boxer puncher that he was in my eyes.