Personally, from a pound-for-pound perspective, names like Julian Jackson, Gerald McClellan, Danny "Little Red" Lopez, Earnie Shavers, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Joe Louis, Deontay Wilder, David Tua, Thomas Hearns, Andy Ganigan spring to mind when I think of the biggest punchers. They could all obliterate people with single shots. Marciano, Frazier, Baer were guys who hit like a ton of bricks but more times than not tended to have to club you to death to stop you. In fact, the guys who had to club you to death may have been better finishers, in some cases, than the guys who could stop you with one shot. Often, especially with Shavers, he could flatten you. But, if you got up, he may not necessarily catch you again. If we're talking Pound-For-Pound guys with the best one-punch power ... and I think Wilder has a real shot of being the best puncher in boxing all time but his career isn't over yet ... but RIGHT NOW I might take Julian Jackson. At one point, he had 53 wins, 49 knockouts and only 3 losses (and the losses had come against McClellan - in two shootouts - and Mike McCallum - in another shootout). Every time Julian Jackson stepped in the ring, you expected a KO to happen any moment with any shot he threw. I've watched a lot of fights live over the last 40+ years, and Jackson was one of only a few people who ever gave me that impression.
Out of interest who are the others? I only have 1 now (coz that's all I really have to work with) and that's Inoue. Wilder would be there as well but he puts so much force behind his punches you can generally tell if they'll KO them, but the Fury KDs and Szpilka are some exceptions to that.
https://streamable.com/fnh6y Baer didn't land with this overhand right, though you are right about hooks - at least one of them catches Pat. https://streamable.com/lz70j This one definitely landed, the second one wasn't a power punch. Pat took it well, can't disagree. https://streamable.com/xeogo This overhand right landed on Comiskey shoulder and it still hurt him. Then he missed left, landed short left hook and a right hand. The rest of the punches didn't land (outside of one uppercut to the body). I don't see this action on the film. https://streamable.com/ierte Amazing punch, perfect delivery. After this punch I see 4 landed rights and 3 lefts. I don't think your "at least 20 punches landed" estamination is correct, though we can agree to disagree. It's simple - Tua catched Ruiz with great shot at the beggining of the round. It's due to his agressive style, Baer didn't force the lead nearly as much as David. This is clearly the most impressive Tua KO, while we have less than 10 Baer KOs on the film. I still can't understand how can you call Comiskey stoppage unimpressive.
This content is protected Here Baer destroyed Levinsky in 2nd round and he wasn't even serious. Watch him clowning and smiling for 90% of the time and then stopping his opponent in 5 seconds. You can doubt all Baer attributes besides two - chin and punching power.
Baer could bang and a terror when prime and serious. Prime Foreman is the hardest puncher in boxing history.
Dempsey, Baer and Foreman were all nice stories. Good little fighters. But let's be real. I would take Wlad and Wilder for top end punching power in the heavyweight division. Lenny could also punch at a top level when incentivized. Quality postmodern punching power. Just another level.
Cute story. I've got a source who sparred both and claims Lionel Butler punched the hardest he ever faced.
Foreman's still in with a shout in discussions like these. He's one of the few older guys who still is though. Baer's power would be average today, unless he was allowed to fight exclusively small cruiserweight or chinny oafs. I don't see anything special about his punching power whatsoever. Dempsey wouldn't even fight at HW today, though P4P he punched above his weight.
Foreman's power didn't appreciably diminish as he got older, so it's not a given that a valid comparison couldn't have been made in a shortish timeframe. Butler was a very underrated puncher though. One of the hardest left hooks of the nineties outside of the big names.
I'm sure you would say the say had Foreman not come back in 1980s. That he was too small and fought too small competition. Somehow he was still one of the hardest punchers in the world as an old man. Average? Some people just can't escape from own biases...
https://streamable.com/x6gmu That's fine. The exact numbers aren't important. Would you agree though that Baer took a much larger number of clean punches to stop his man than Tua? I'd say Baer forced the issue just fine here. https://streamable.com/0t5bz He'd already stunned Pat with a hard OH right at that point, and could have knocked him out with the follow up flurry if he'd have punched as hard as all that. Tua already had his man dribbling on the canvas by this point. Too bad. You work with what you have. It was fairly impressive. Any first round stoppage of a guy that isn't a scrub is impressive. What I can't understand is how you can look at that footage and consider it on equal standing with one of the most brutal demolition jobs in HW history. What's going on in your mind to even think to equate the two?