3 top ten guys is really not very useful to make any comparison, but after he fights another two top ten guys we could definitely make a comparison to the great punchers of the past. We could add up all the top ten guys say George Foreman fought in the top ten, what his KO % was fighting against them, then we could compare that to Wilder, Tyson etc, and that would give us a accurate comparison who was the bigger puncher. Saying that though, the retired fighters fought on a good few years longer than Wildee has so far, so we could not give a perefect comparison until Wilder retires.
Wilder clearly hit's very hard and he might very well be the hardest one punch hitter at heavyweight right now, but it's hard to put his power on the same level of more proven punchers, simply because his power hasn't been up against the level of quality yet to properly gauge his power. Right now I'd have to rate proven punchers like Foreman, Tua, Shavers, Tyson, Wlad etc over Wilder. Those guys proved their immense power again and again, against some quality opponents and quality chins. Wilder's power to date has seen him go the distance twice, once by Stiverne who had been stopped before and once by Fury who's chin proved more than Wilder's power could overcome. Duhaupas and Molina both took good shots off him for several rounds and both have been stopped quicker by other opponents. I couldn't see Duahuapas or Molina going as many rounds as they did vs the likes of Foreman or Tyson.
Unrealistic expectations on Wilder as far as "proving" his power. The man has kd'd or ko'd every opponent he's ever faced. Has that ever happened, for any HW belt holder, ever? People mention only facing 3 top 10 HWs, but one of those in solidly in ATG conversations, and he kd'd him twice, and nearly had him out once. Probably a more fair indicator would be looking at his record against sub top ten opponents. I just gave a quick glance at George Foreman's resume through 40 fights. It was fairly comparable, all told, certainly in as far as only facing under 5 indisputable top 10 HWs to that point. Most of his opponents were the cannon fodder type opponents Wilder is widely hated for fighting. He had 3 UD's in that time span. And if I recall correctly, at least one of the opponents he stopped was stopped on his feet, never touching the deck despite repeated punching from Foreman. I'd say there is a good chance others were stopped on their feet without ever touching the deck as well. There are legitimate qualms to have with Wilder. He's a horrible boxer in many respects. And, until the past year, he had a historically bad list of opponents for a legit champ. But his knockout record is demonstrably historic. We can quibble over the some specifics, there is certainly room for argument. But there is no legitimate question that he is one of the hardest hitters of this era and even in the conversation for all time. To my eye, I think while he doesn't have the thudding, accumulation power of others, for single shot sniper power, he probably has the best punch of all time.
Well said and fully agree. Most fighters face bums at some point in their career and no HW's I've seen have shown the sickening power Wilder has facing them.
Here's some highlights of Earnie Shavers, when you really take in the clips his punching power doesn't really look all that frightening. This content is protected
“...power hitters of the passed” What?? Someone’s been savagely beating up on corpses? Oh yeah, Wilder
He needs to work on his inside punches. He has a killer punch if he is able to swing from a distance but his inside game is lacking big time.
Tyson and Foreman would likely have one more KO than Wilder if they fought his resume of scrubs. They would have both KO'd Stiverne the first time.
It's difficult to compare Wilder to Foreman in terms of power because they both carried their power differently. George's power punches were fairly slow but carried a huge amount of thud, like getting hit by a cannon ball, whilst Wilder possesses a snappy power punch which is full of pop, more akin to getting taken out by a sniper rifle than being hit with a cannon ball. His power reminds me more of Mike Tyson or Tommy Hearns than Foreman, Wlad, Shavers or any of the other punchers mentioned in this discussion. IMO they all probably hit roughly as hard as each other.
