Face/Jaw Shape a problem?

[Doc Holliday]

yes, that's an issue.

the muscles and bones of the face are what we look at all day. university studies have been done that show an almost perfect ability of human beings to evaluate strength based on a person's appearance from the neck up.


a durable face is going to look durable to you. seeing that and recognizing it is natural.

pronounced ridges of the eyes, a sturdily boned jaw, and plenty of muscle in the cheeks and around the jaw all are signs of a strong man, and a strong man is much more likely to be durable.


almost all of your favorite boxers are gifted athletes, and their faces will have muscles, bones, and proportions appropriate to that level of athleticism.


obviously there are acceptions, but for the most part a flag will go up if i see a pro boxer who doesn't have a jaw and face that appears durable.


additionally, certain types of faces are more likely to swell and cut around the eyes. the diet, weight loss and gain, and obviously a history of cuts have an effect on this as well. bam bam rios hardly ever swells, yet he takes punishment constantly. arturo gatti would swell up if you looked at him the wrong way.

Interesting. I've read articles on how people assume qualities based on looks, but it was more about trustworthiness, wisdom, etc. Do you have a source for this about durability?

[Makunouchi]

Yeah, I don't think I have one of those faces (durable looking), which kind of sucks but I won't let anything short of getting knocked out easily discourage me. I know that as of yet none of the guys mentioned have quite the short thin jaw or chin that I posess. Its not like I have no chin, but every single boxer I've seen has what seems to me a huge jaw compared to other people I've seen....even the glass jawed ones.

[Light_Speed]

I have worked on a lot of neck strengthening as I've always heard that its important. I do neck bridges.
I have noticed there are a lot of guys with pronounced jawlines and chins who have a glass jaw. But I wonder if anyone can come up with a guy who has relatively no chin or a weak jawline who can take a good hard punch...cause like I said it seems to me that in general I cant find any really successful boxers who have small chin/jawline. Good point though.

Marcos Maidana has a small chin but has very good punch resistance.

yes, that's an issue.

the muscles and bones of the face are what we look at all day. university studies have been done that show an almost perfect ability of human beings to evaluate strength based on a person's appearance from the neck up.


a durable face is going to look durable to you. seeing that and recognizing it is natural.

pronounced ridges of the eyes, a sturdily boned jaw, and plenty of muscle in the cheeks and around the jaw all are signs of a strong man, and a strong man is much more likely to be durable.

This works when comparing men of different sizes but if we're talking about fighters in the same division, this theory has too many counter examples.

[New England]

Marcos Maidana has a small chin but has very good punch resistance.




This works when comparing men of different sizes but if we're talking about fighters in the same division, this theory has too many counter examples.

that's a good point, but for the sake of that discussion one could argue that fighters of the same size usually take punishment similarly. it would really be hard to distinguish between smaller and larger men when talking about the increments in boxing, which are only a few lbs at the low end.

it's a very general premise, that strength of the body shows up in the face, but one that i hold to. i've always thought of it as basically common knowledge. i was an athlete growing up, and i always felt that i could see the evidence of talent show up in somebody's face. strong dudes have strong looking faces. i can't describe it any better right now, as i am watching the bruins i've been sizing other men up physically since i hit puberty. it came naturally to me, i guess.

[New England]

Interesting. I've read articles on how people assume qualities based on looks, but it was more about trustworthiness, wisdom, etc. Do you have a source for this about durability?

http://www.cep.ucsb.edu/topics/strength_face.html


you've got to make the leap between a man being "durable" and being strong, but i generally think that's appropriate. is it really so much of a stretch to think that stronger men take a better shot? of course not. that's common sense.

[Makunouchi]

you've got to make the leap between a man being "durable" and being strong, but i generally think that's appropriate. is it really so much of a stretch to think that stronger men take a better shot? of course not. that's common sense.[/QUOTE]

Makes sense to me. Its too bad there is no data about what makes a person take a good shot, since obviously the experiment would have to be silly. Whose gonna risk brain damage by allowing you to knock them out for the sake of data? I'm not worried about strength though. I've always been sort of a strong guy. Of course I'm too short to be as heavy as I am in boxing, I'd have to cut a lot of weight so who knows how that would affect me. I've heard that many boxers with weak chins have gotten better at taking punches after moving up in weight presumably because of thicker legs and necks (Miguel Cotto)?

[dan_cov]

If a guy with a chin shaped like this starts, don't hit him, you'll break your hand.



Strangely he has a similar bone structure to Rigo avi only on a larger scale.

[MindBat]

This cat's only been KO'd 3X his entire career (1987 -2009) ... You could ask to rent his mug for a week ...

[MindBat]

Serious ... Julio Cesar Square Head could swallow punches in bunches and keep coming forward ...

[Pain~Lucy]

good reflex, conditioning, tough/thick spine will all help
and it's not about thickness of the neck, it's the spine