Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin

It’s been a long-held maxim in boxing that it’s impossible to add muscle to the chin. In other words, fighters who have a glass-jaw are stuck with this limitation for their entire (often relatively short) careers. However, two boxers are beginning to make me question the validity of this notion. I saw Wladimir Klitschko get brutally knocked out in 2003 and 2004, and to be quite frank, he looked like a bum. Having barely survived three knockdowns against Samuel Peter in 2005, Klitschko has now won 11 world title fights in a row. I was sure if David Haye caught him on the chin, Klitschko would fall, but Haye definitely landed at least two big right hands and Klitschko didn’t crumble. Admittedly, he didn’t land a full Hayemaker (the broken toe prevented that), and perhaps the defensive style Klitschko has adopted since those mid-career wobbles, has successfully prevented anyone from properly testing his chin. Certainly the current paucity of the heavyweight division has helped in this regard. But what about Amir Khan? How has he gone from having the most suspect chin in British boxing to being on the verge of dominating the 140 pound division (with talk of moving up to welterweight and challenging the likes of Floyd Mayweather)? Every time these fighters step into the ring – especially against dangerous punchers – I’ll still be thinking ‘maybe this time’. But how many world championship defences must a fighter make before one has to stop considering him ‘chinny’?