Who was the physically strongest heavy weight champ?

I see you are liking your own post with your alt account "James"

 

Sonny 'The Big Bear' Liston .

Believe it or not, he was even more physically stronger than George Foreman .

Both Foreman and Liston used to take turns pushing up a wheel barrow full of '100 pounds of cement' up a long inclined hill .

I believe this was some kind of strength training...

Foreman was only able do it 1 time.

Liston was able to do it not once but 3 times.

Foreman said he was in shock by Listons strength who was very much old by that time.

 

Foreman in his prime was the most physically strong hwt I have ever seen. He was a human force of nature. Very few hwt champions would have beaten the Foreman who fought Ali in 74. Not only a dangerous puncher but along with it he had the drive, determination and killer instinct of an ATG fighter.

 

I read somewhere that someone asked Evander Holyfield at some Q&A night who was the strongest he fought and he said he used to test the strength of his opponents by moving them in the clinches but the only guy he couldn't budge was Foreman, he was just too big and strong.

Now Evander fought Lewis, Rahman, Bowe, Tyson, Valuev etc etc so I think this makes a pretty strong case for George when we are talking applicable strength at least.

 

How strong a boxer in the ring does not depend on how much a boxer bench presses.
It obvious makes you strong but the strongest boxers are the one's who have done manual
labor or trained with strongman type exercises. This not only requires great strength but
co ordination also. Many boxers have body builder type builds but lack endurance .
Carrying heavy rocks that miners did or farmers did chopping trees or labour hammering in
giant nails on railroad or blacksmith hammering anvil is better for strength than any
weight lifting type routine that boxers do for one hour. The old boxers got there strength
from this type of work when they did this all day , every day.

 

Apparently Ali was deceptively strong.

 

Wladimir and Vitali. Think this one is pretty obvious really.

 

Any examples spring to mind?

Both are massive men so it's definitely possible but I don't have any single example of pure brute strength whether filmed or anecdotal that springs to mind for either.

 

Carnera, Liston, Big George.

 

I've posted this information once before....I knew a guy in Denver back in the mid-1970's who had played football
for Navy. He was huge and immensely strong. He once picked up a big cottonwood tree and moved it into a hole
I had been digging. And I was hanging off the tree!

Anyway he had sparred with Sonny Liston and he said he nearly cried when Liston hit him. I'm serious about this story. If you had met and/or seen my friend you would be as astonished as I was when I heard his story.

Liston must have been a monster in and out of the ring.

 

theres a picture of him doing that

 

believe it or not, it is only truth in your fantasy world.

curiously you mentioned that liston was old but you forgot to mention that foreman was 18 ,very light at that time and was not even fully developed.

Foreman was bigger,stronger ,greater , had x2 more heart and was harder puncher than liston, deal with it

 

I don't see any mention yet....Shannon Briggs when he beat Liakovich was really strong.

 

George Foreman...either old or young versions.