The Hardest Puncher in the World

There are many champion lists, but I have never seen a list of the hardest punchers in the world through history.

Criteria--Must be active at the time and fighting top men. This is in an absolute sense--not p4p

John L Sullivan--in the 1880's (185-195 lbs)

Bob Fitzsimmons--with ko's of Corbett, Sharkey, Ruhlin, Maher--and off boxrec, Choynski and O'Brien, I think he holds the title from the early '90's into the early 1900's (170 lbs)

No clear outstanding puncher for five years or so until

Sam Langford--from about 1910 for 8 or so years (170-190 lbs)

Jack Dempsey--takes the baton from Langford about 1917 and holds it until his retirement in 1927 (190 lbs)

George Godfrey--from late twenties into early thirties (230-250 lbs)

Max Baer--from early thirties when Godfrey is getting old and fat to the rise of Joe Louis (210 lbs)

Joe Louis--from the mid-thirties to the late forties (195-210 lbs)

Rocky Marciano--from the very late forties to his retirement (185 lbs)

Another unclear gap, but

Ingemar Johansson-in the mid to late fifties-Liston is in prison- (195 lbs)

Sonny Liston-takes over in late fifties or 1960 or so until the late sixties (215 lbs)

George Foreman--from around 1970 to his first retirement (220 lbs)

Earnie Shavers--from Foreman's retirement to early '80's (210 lbs)

A gap from Shavers to Tyson, but to choose

Gerry Cooney-by default in the early 1980's (225 lbs)

Mike Tyson-from mid-1980's until late 90's (215-220 lbs)

Lennox Lewis-late 90's to early 2000's (240 lbs)

Wladimir Klitschko-from Lewis' retirement to today (240 lbs)

*Ok fellows, where did I go wrong?

Disagreements? Any comments?

 

I said I wasn't doing p4p.

That is a legit topic for a thread, though, and I might start one on it some time, after doing a bit of thinking on it.

Or you could do one.

Right now, though, what about the topic of this thread?

 

Okay. I am interested in exploring gaps in my list.

You feel McCall should be listed as the biggest puncher over Tyson, or just while Tyson was in jail?

By the way, what about Bowe?

My own take on McCall is that the Lewis ko is certainly top flight. The Akinwanda ko is also most impressive.

Damiani is somewhat of an enigma.

Seldon and Maskaev were "chinny"

Overall, McCall had 37 ko's in 69 fights.

When exactly would you rate him #1--and I want to emphasize I am interested in opinions on this thread, not disputing your views.

 

If you think David Tua should be on this list, just say so. Don't bore me with what you think I know or don't know.

"I even intentionally omitted Michael Moorer, Hasim Rahman and Cleveland Woods from his record, something Louis' worshipper forget 2do with Buddy Baer in their 1st fight and Max Schmeling in their 2nd."

????? -- why should Louis "worshippers" hide the first Buddy Baer fight? Louis destroyed Buddy. The only controversy was his second jumping into the ring.

And what "Louis worshipper" would ever hide the 2nd Schmeling fight?

*For the record, Tua might be a good addition. What years do you think he should be #1?