Not necessarily devastating, but Sweet Pea Whitaker had some serious pop and could have probably become a far-above-average slugger had he decided to concentrate on his power rather than on his other gifts.
Good choice. His love of being a puglist specialist made him appear dull when he shouldn't have been, because when he was aggressive he was the most exciting HW since Tyson.
Agreed. It's funny; I hated him throughout his career and always hoped he would lose. The passage of time allows me now the ability to broadly admit what I always knew, even then. Pea could do pretty much everything and at his best barely ever lost a round, let alone a fight.
Eddie Mutapha Muhammad had serious power but often times seemed content to box his way to a win without looking to use that huge power he possessed. I think @JohnThomas1 described him as lacking the touch of mongrel that would’ve made him an even more dangerous fighter and I reckon that describes it perfectly. I always thought something changed in the mindset of Acelino Freitas after the Casamayor fight. The guy had ridiculous power but he seemed to lack the confidence in that power that he once possessed and subsequently was a much more cautious and measured fighter even though his KO% is still very healthy.
How do you really answer this? If someone is powerful if they hit you it will hurt. Someone who purposely punched incorrectly? Or do you mean someone who wouldn’t try for knockouts? I’m not sure how to answer.
The latter. Someone who isn't overly aggressive, and may even be timid or gunshy, despite possessing scary power. Technicians with energy conserving styles who could, if they wanted to, hit extremely hard. Fighters who won't press the issue, and won't try for the knockout, but are content to win a decision. Fighters who are just fine with inactive, clinchy kinds of fights. That kind of thing. Another example: Imagine the kind of fighter who would result if Jimmy Young woke up one day with high-end power, but still insisted on fighting like Jimmy Young.
I"m pretty sure what is meant are guys with big power who didn't walk in to fights with the plan of winning via knockout.
The fights where he just went for it were great. Like round 2 in his fight with Ruddock. Ruddock gave Tyson all kinds of problems and ate big shots from him, and Lewis just splattered him. Splattered Tyson too for that matter once he went for it.
All the big punchers usually punch and really try to apply it, Mm good question. Duran could still punch above 147lbs but was hesitant to get into shoot outs for obvious reasonsand chose to box the big guys really conservatively at times unless they where really awful on the inside like Davey Moore. Obviously there is the Griffith, Eubank and Charles’s of the world too. I think Mayweather and Calzaghe could punch very hard, both didn’t often due to complications with there hands and hard punching and brittle hands are a different sort of topic. I’ll give this more thought rather then giving you cookie cutter answers.
Perfect mention. Eddie was often way too passive and if his opponent played ball it was usually more pronounced. He needed that mongrel guys like Michael Spinks had. Guy had dynamite in both hands particularly the right and could really do damage to the body as seen vs Pops.
Davis made the conscious decision to get more aggressive and come down off his toes a lot more going into the Coverson bout Ed. Coverson was rated around #7 from memory and Davis absolutely dominated him. After coming off 4 decision wins he stopped a few guys and gave Edwin Rosario a top fight. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/19/sports/davis-alters-style-and-stops-rival-in-8th.html https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/0...uncils-No-2-ranked-lightweight/1443424756800/
