Underrated Power on this forum ..

I didn't see "early". My bad.

That said, most of Hagler's stoppage wins came inside the first half of the bout. Only Hamsho (I), Obelmejias (I), Roldan and Mugabi went beyond the halfway mark, before being stopped.

 

Perfect summation.

 

I never thought of either of them lacking power but two people already brought up Marciano and Holmes. Buddy baer was a brute and doesn’t often get discussed.

 

Eduardo Lausse. Watch his fight with Fullmer; he turned him into a tentative, unsure mess in their fight. His left hook was just pulverizing.

 

Ricardo Lopez. One of the hardest pound for pound punchers I ever saw.

 

An odd choice but I'll throw it out there anyway. Bazooka Limon. He was awkward, he was an arm puncher a lot of the time, but when he dug in he got real results. Yet no one ever thinks of him as a puncher.

 

Julio. He could whack below 140.

 

Hagler was more destructively accurate than destructively powerful, same with J.Frazier. Neither had the concussive force behind their punches as say J.Jackson G.Foreman, or B.Foster. But they were just as effective and possibly more so than the fighters who may have hit harder. Another fighter that was more destructively accurate was Ray Leonard.

 

I'll pick Floyd Mayweather. There seems to be a delusion that fighters like Pryor, Chavez, or even Leonard would just be able to wade in and throw bombs at him. In real life, Canelo went 24 rounds with GGG and handled his power well but was prevented from stampeding a 36 year old at a 15-20 pound weight disadvantage who happened to have a nice lead right hand and counter right hand.

 

No one wants to talk about buddy baer because then people would have to acknowledge that Joe Louis demolished a guy who was essentially a modern sized super heavyweight (6'6 250 lbs) with devastating power (82% ko ratio) and took his punches despite being 6'2 and 206 lbs. Louis was also the only person to ko baer in 61 professional fights.

The dilemma people with an agenda face when they attempt to dismiss this victory by writing buddy baer off as a mere unskilled slugger and not having the technique or "athleticism" of modern super heavies is this:

-they acknowledge that joe louis is one of the most skilled and technically sound heavyweights of all time

-they dismiss the taller opponents of Dempsey and Louis as unskilled sluggers/plodders and make the case that modern shws were far more skilled than the fred fultons, Willard, Simons, and bears.

-if they choose to take this stance then they face a sort of paradox: by claiming modern shws were far more skilled, they are indirectly saying that the big men of the past (in this case buddy baer) were able to keep up with the most technically sound hw of all time with sheer size and raw talent. If thats the case then clearly a guy like buddy baer wouldnt just be some D level bum in another era. You cant have it both ways.

-Similarly, if the claim is that boxing is way more advanced now and that modern super heavies are unique because they are more skilled than the giants of the past, but at the same time you acknowledge no one in the modern era had the skill of joe louis, then you must then address the fact sheer size wouldnt be enough in a h2h discussion pitting Louis against modern giants. You have to compare skill vs skill. The question then becomes how much more skilled modern fighters like Wladmir or Lennox were compared to giants of the past and how their skills compare to Joe Louis himself. Because once again, clearly you arent beating Louis with sheer size alone, and apparently nobody thinks any modern day fighter has skill on his level.

I have yet to see anyone tackles this can of worms and im curious what peoples' honest assesment is. Explain the buddy baer paradox.

 

James Toney's power is under rated. His left hook was a problem up through Cruiser.

 

Interesting, but I'd put Buddy just a bit above Wilder in terms of Skills. Wlad, Lennox, Fury and Joshua are notably more skilled than buddy though. I think Louis would beat Wilder, Ortiz and Whyte's of the world but this top echelon of modern heavyweight would be too much for Joe. I think Ali would dust all but Lennox and Fury though.

 

Sergio Martinez’s power often gets overlooked even after his brutal KO of Paul Williams. When he sat on his punches he can be pretty deadly.

 

Roy Jones ..... It’s part of the reason he didn’t get hit a lot .... You can’t just bomb away at him . After he counters you a couple of times you’ll change your mind.