George forman’s power compare to today’s super heavy’s

All HW hit like hell! I think Holyfield is super underrated on this category

 

Size isn't everything. Earnie Shavers and George Foreman probably punched about the same as the best super heavies do today. They had unique body types that managed to let them generate torque and power in special ways. Plus, the weight doesn't always tell you if a guy is strong or weak. Some little guys have muscles that are just way stronger than a big guys for some reason. It's for those reasons that I think Shavers and Foreman punched roughly as hard as Klitschko, Lewis, or Bowe.

 

Foremans power is more overrated than AJs

 

Joshua's feet are two wide when he turns his body and instead of letting his forearm stay parallel with the ground and let his body complete the turn as he connects the punch. Joshua swings it, which gets his punches off faster, but ends up wasting a lot of his power. Also, when Joshua throws his hooks you see barely any rotation from his body. At 1:30 seconds Joshua fires off some left hooks, but his feet are too wide and he's only slightly turning, which is why he isn't generating much power.

In the video with Foreman hitting the bag notice the distance between Foreman's feet at 44 seconds. That's the optimal space between your feet that you want when throwing your hooks. Foreman turns his back foot and notice that his right shoulder is behind his left and then as Foreman turns his body he turns his right shoulder in order that his fist matches the rotation of his body, which results in none of his power being wasted and his left shoulder being behind his right.

Joshua vs. Takam

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Joshua is landing on Takam, but each time he lands his feet are spread too far apart and Joshua's swinging the punches with none of his body's weight behind them, which is a big waste when your Joshua's size. If Joshua rotated some of his weight into his hooks and connected his hooks on Takam rather than swinging them he would've made short work of Takam.

Chisora vs. Takam

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Notice at 41 seconds Chisora fires off an overhand right and rotates his body and brings his punch with his body as he connects on Takam, which allows him to put all of his weight into the punch. It ended Takam immediately. Also, notice that Takam's shoulders change position as he completes the punch. Your shoulders should replace each other when you turn your body and connect your punches.

Michael Moorer vs. Cooper

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At 4:40 watch as Moorer who's feet aren't in optimal position, but he still manages to generate fight ending power by turning his body and shoulder as he fires off a straight left, which puts enough of his 225 lbs into his punch, which dropped Cooper like a sack of potatoes and ended the fight.

Archie Moore's straight right hand and short right hook to the body were his bread and butter for keeping the much bigger fighters at heavyweight honest. Foreman utilized this same punches in the same fashion as Moore did.

Moore 5'11" 175 lbs vs. Embrell Davidson 6'1" 209 lbs

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Davidson tried to crowd Moore, but Moore's short uppercuts keep him honest and on the outside. Moore then sets up his straight right hand and times Davidson with a well executed straight right, which ends the fight. Foreman against Moorer fires his straight right the same way and gets the same result, which is Moorer getting finished in one shot.

Archie Moore 5'11" 180 lbs vs. Nino Valdes 6'3" 209 lbs

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Moore uses a short right hook to the body to limit the mobility of Valdes. Foreman utilized this same short right hook to the body against plenty of fighter such as Holyfield, Cooper, and Morrison. Holyfield admitted that after taking that punch that he quickly switched tactics and focused on winning a decision than putting himself at risk of being knocked out. Morrison did the same.

 

I think George is a thunderous puncher in any era, like you say though not a 1 punch man. I think its his speed, fighters could see his shot coming more and could try and brace for impact, but it still done damage regardless, where as Wlad Lennox could disguise a monster shot better/faster there for catch you more unawares. If George was a bit faster he would've put fighters to sleep for a week lol

 

Exactly. They don't call it the sweet science for nothing. Joshua is an amazing athlete, but is wasting a lot of his power and energy. As I'm sure you noticed punching this way is also more efficient, which why Old George, Wlad, Archie Moore and plenty of other older fighters were able to compete with much younger fighters. If Joshua were able get more of his strength and body weight into his punches he wouldn't have to punch and move around as much, which would result in Joshua conserving his energy better.

Correct. All things being equal strength plays a tremendous part. Also, strength gained from performing compound motions is more effective in punching power than strength gained from weight lifting. This is why a lot of old school boxers and even some modern boxers chop wood. It engages a lot of muscles just like when a boxer throws a punch.

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A lot of fighters that build too much of their strength through weight lifting tend to push their punches rather than lining up and connected their punches and also tend to swing rather than completing the shoulder and body rotations, which puts all of the body weight into the punch. This is due to weights isolating muscle groups rather than engaging multiple muscle groups as is seen in compound movement based workouts.

Foreman training

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Foreman in this training session is most likely around 230-235 lbs. Notice how efficient Foreman's movement is. At 2:35 Foreman slides his feet into position and lifts his feet as little as possible. A good way to practice footwork efficiency is with the jump rope. A lot of modern boxers jump too much and aren't efficient with the jump rope. Sonny Liston, Roy Jones, Floyd Mayweather, Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, etc. were very efficient with the jump rope and also very efficient with their footwork.

Archie Moore was usually 10 years older than most of his opponents, so he couldn't afford to waste any of his energy and therefore used as little movement as possible to get himself within punching range and also when he was blocking or slipping punches. Foreman utilized this same methodology throughout his career, but much more effectively in his 30's and 40's, since Foreman could sometimes get wild in his prime.

Notice the difference between the training regiments between Joshua and Liston.

Anthony Joshua

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He's an incredible athlete and cross training is great. However, sometimes less can be better. Throughout his training you don't see too much focus on efficiency, which for a guy his size should be stressed, since all of that movement takes its toll on him in the ring. Also, foot placement isn't focused on too much either. Joshua is a very strong and a talented guy and could easily be just as big a puncher as Wilder if not a bigger puncher if his punching technique was improved.

Sonny Liston

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Liston who didn't lift weights was very solidly built, but focused a lot more on timing and efficiency. This allowed him to punch a less, since he was generating power in all of his shots.

 

I'm thinking BULL****...From start to finish

 

Foreman was naturally bigger, wider, thicker and heavier boned than these guys who are today's "super heavyweights".

Joshua has bulked up.

Wladimir bulked up.

Deontay is very 'small' for his height and it's only his reflexes and wild swings that keep bailing him out.

When Foreman came back in 1987, he started his camp at 320lbs.

He was naturally a huge huge man. If you have ever seen his hands and the size of his wrists you'll see that he was born a puncher.

 

Foreman was also great at controlling an opponents movement up close with his arms, knock them off balance and punch

 

What's the difference in the heavy bags of today from the ones that Foreman worked out on?

 

Foreman is underrated. He is one of the best heavyweights of all time. The fight that defined him was the Rumble in the Jungle. Had that fight taken place in the states Foreman would have won and the course of boxing would have been altered and much of the adulation for Ali would have diminished. Foreman was better than Ali, imo. But Ali was the star, bigger than boxing, and he was given all sorts of subtle advantages. Ali constantly held opponents' heads down, tiring the fighter. Refs hardly said anything. With any other fighter, points would have been taken to stop this. The one thing Foreman lacked was the kind of movement Ali had. Foreman could outslug any fighter but the Jimmy Youngs and the Alis could at times outpoint him if he couldn't catch them. But from a pure power point of view, no one touched Foreman, not Ron Lyle, not Ernie Shavers. George hit the hardest. He was a killer in the ring. Foreman would have KO'd AJ, Wlad, Parker, Wilder, all of these guys today. Foreman was only stopped once and that was against Ali and only because of the hot weather, and peculiarities about the fight, like being fought at 4 am to accommodate the US viewing audience.

https://www.history.com/news/the-rumble-in-the-jungle-40-years-ago