Bigger one punch power? Shavers vs Tyson

No, I've got nothing personal against Shavers. Just can't stand idiots unthinkingly parroting the same old BS about his amazing power despite his exceedingly average achievements in this region.

 

What do you guys consider to be their single hardest punches? Seems like identifying those and comparing might shed some light on this.

 

It's sort of like asking which is worse, getting run over by a runaway freight train or a wrecking ball.

Either way, you don't want to get hit by it. Either guy hits you with his best punch, you're at least in major trouble and at worst it's over for you.

I'll go with Shavers. Tyson was a better puncher, but Earnie IMO hit harder.

 

No, but we're talking about Shavers, and his legacy. To act like 50+ KO's on film wouldn't illuminate more about his punching ability is pretty stupid honestly.

 

Tysons KO on Johnson is up there.
And Shavers uppercut on Norton is up there.

 

His peers all agree that he was one the hardest pucker ever. While he may not seem so dangerous from the safety of his doubters couches I think I will give the experts word who shared the ring with him more weight.

 

Hard to say, my first reaction is shavers but most of shavers Ko's were against lower level opposition that averaged 15-20lbs smaller than the average Tyson KO victim. Particularly after prison Tyson showed a lot of his raw natural power as his combination skill declined

 

Then until footage of his bum beating days ever comes to light we can only judge him on what's, you know, actually available.

 

Shavers's hardest punch I'll go with the left hook he knocked Lyle down with.

Tyson? Far too many to pick.

An easier comparison is to look at the shots they both used to drop Holmes.

 

You would no doubt see some frightening displays of power in any puncher's resume if their opponents are bad enough. Sam Peter has some doozies. Unfortunately, all that ends up telling us about the fighter is that they're good at beating up nobodies. It doesn't have any bearing on their reputation at the highest levels of the sport.

 

This is true.
But a couple of people here mentioned Tyson's KO of Michael "Jack" Johnson, a bum who was coming off stoppage losses to Mike Fisher, Lawrence Carter and David Pearce in his previous 3 fights, and who ended up with a career record of 15-18 which isn't the worst record ever by any means but consider 17 of those losses were stoppages.

 

What we would see is Shavers landing his best punches. Tyson is so many levels above Shavers ability wise it's unfair to expect Shavers to match his highlight reels, particulalry against better fighters. Shavers did not beat anything like the array of higher level fighters Tyson did and never would.

Tyson routinely obliterated fighters Shavers would have very little chance of beating. Tyson's infinitely better stamina also allowed him to have some starch for far longer than Shavers.

Tyson's ko's invariably came against fighters no-where near as good as him. There were loads of fighters better than Earnie. When Tyson had trouble landing consistent leather we saw fighters like Tucker and Smith go the distance. When fighting top notch fighters that could actually compete with him and take a punch Tyson came back quite a bit. He never so much as wobbled Holyfield in either fight. Against better fighters Earnie had plenty such problems. Have a look at how many punches he lands in a couple of dozen rounds against Holmes. Did he win even 2 rounds out of 22? Another thing comparative to a Tyson is that Tyson's hand speed and angles allowed him to land plenty of punches people did not see coming and could not mentally prepare for. These are the punches that can often do the most damage.

 

Earnie Shavers tended to be quite sloppy with his follow-up punches.
I've seen him land some monstrous punches, and have his opponents doing weird dances but not quite knocked out. Earnie, then going for the kill, would follow up with punches that barely land or just glance and ones that were clumsy, missed or were blocked. He even had Muhammad Ali rocked on several occassions and probably just one decent follow up punch away from a KO defeat.

Tyson was a way more consistent finisher.

 

If the question is answered by the quality of opponents which the two onepunch KO'd, then the answer is emphatically Tyson.

 

That doesn't answer the question tho.