Who’s the hardest hitting boxer of all time?

Wilder has some potential to be that, but he hasn't proved it in the slightest

 

Not resume based rsponse only - show me Shavers destroying big and very durable fighter like Buddy Baer in one round.

Louis was taller and Shavers weighed around 210 lbs at his best, Louis was in 200-210 lbs range in his prime. If that's what you call smaller, then fine but it doesn't make any sense because Shavers is much smaller than most HW hitters.

 

Who cares? The size of biceps has nothing to do with punching power.

Joshua is not close to the best HW combo punchers.

 

KO of Braddock?
KD of Buddy Baer?
KD of Galento?

Really nothing close to that?

 

Louis did that to Max Baer with his JAB.

 

Shavers can be seen inflicting big damage with single punches even when he didn't win fights. His left hook to drop Lyle was titanic and if it didn't happen at the end of the round Earnie likely would have finished him given the shocking condition he was in.

Shavers was the first to ever stop Joe Bugner. Bugner had previously gone 61 rounds with Ali, Frazier, Mac foster and Ron Lyle without being stopped before Shavers had him down in the 1st and cut up in the second for a stoppage.

He was the only guy ever to stop Roy Williams and Williams had fought a young hungry Larry Holmes.

Incidently Baer had been stopped by a secondrat er prior to Louis turning the trick.

Labeling Shavers around 210 at his best but then pushing Louis as a 200-210 pounder in his prime isn't really being honest nor fair.

Louis hit 200 pounds just twice in his first 26 fights including the loss to Schmeling. He did start young so we will be fair and push this aside. We'll look at his 37 title winning effort forward to the war break - his peak years and some 22 fights. This is giving him the benefit of 2 fights pre break where he weighed 5 pounds or so more than the norm. He comes out to about 201.5 average. It would be entirely fair to label Louis a 200 pounder. Louis was often under 200 pounds.

Shavers we can take from his near upset of Lyle followed shortly after by wins over a top 10'er and moving into the 10 himself. We'll take it thru Ali and Norton, Holmes x 2 up to the Cobb loss which i think ended his top 10 run. 17 fights. He comes out to about 213.5.

So we are talking more than 10 pounds of difference. At 200 and say 212 pounds i would certainly call Shavers the bigger man. If they were say 240 and 250 the difference would be less.

 

Not in the same vain as Mark is talking.

 

I think Shavers tired so early in the Holmes II fight because of the amount of energy exerted in that one punch knockdown. Imagine the amount of force the body's generating there. No wonder he couldn't follow it up.

 

Possibly but you have also got to remember that Holmes wasn’t just standing around doing nothing and waiting for Shavers to tire. He was outboxing and punishing Earnie in every round. Apart from the 7th round when the knockdown occurred, I think Holmes won every round so the stoppage in the 11th was more due to Holmes eventually wearing Shavers down rather than due to any over-exertion on Earnie’s part.

 

Size is pretty much relative when men are at or very close too 200 lbs. If size was the end all Primo Canera, Tyson Fury, Buster Mathis sr, Michael Grant, and all the way back too Jess Willard should've been some of the greatest punchers in history, or clearly the premier punchers of their respective era's. And not one of them were the best punchers of their own eras. Punching power is much more about technique, timing, speed, , surprise (the ability to land punches from unexpected angles,and areas's punches the opponent never saw coming) then it is about big muscles, height and weight. I wish some on this site could understand that fact.

 

I agree with you. That version of Frazier was an absolute monster and would have been the favorite against any heavyweight in their prime.
He was superhumanly conditioned and motivated. His defensive technique with the bobbing and weaving was superb. You could even argue it was at least one of the greatest athletic feats of all time.

 

That's impressive but not more than what Louis did to Max Baer, Paulino Uzcudun, James Braddock, Bob Pastor and Arturo Godoy. Louis stopped more durable (and better) types than Shavers and it's not up to the debate.

If 10 lbs is such an important difference to you, then Shavers shouldn't be ranked higher than guys like David Tua or Tommy Morrison in terms of power.

 

PFP Julian Jackson. He had serious heavyweight power in a 160lb frame. SRR had incredible power for his size too. As far as heavyweights I have to go with Shavers as far as raw power, but as far as power combined with flawless technique and combination power - The Brown Bomber.