How Powerful Was Max Baer?

Well he certainly threw the giant Carnera round like a rag doll so he must have had some wallop! He seems very fast but his punches are hugely telegraphed. On rewatching this match I actually have a bit more respect for Primo, he makes Ray Mercer look like Sugar Ray but his jab is decent and he troubles Max with it for a bit of the second round before getting nailed again.....and again...

Based on this very limited knowledge Max looks like he has Louis level power and certainly stands a punchers chance against modern champs. However someone with a good jab like Holmes or Lewis would pick him apart. Reminded me vaguely of Rocky Graziano, another wild puncher with a taste for the high life!

Interested to see what others with more knowledge of Max think.

 

He was the 1930s equivalent of Deontay Wilder.

 

In terms of just raw power, he was up there with just about every power puncher. I rate him 9/10 for my personal HW h2h stat sheet. Nobody is just shrugging off a flush right hand bomb from Baer.

 

Extremely powerful. I always felt he was underrated

 

Believe it or not the Max Baer u see is holding back. He was never the same after killing that man. Although I believe he is thought to have killed two or even three people. Max was at his very best in the two to three years before he won the title. He came up quickly and was very popular for his power. He didn’t focus on his craft and prob only took it seriously jn that short stretch as he knew he was prob one more loss away from disappearing off the scene. When he finally focused he became a deadly fighter but like Wilder was never as good as he could have been. He hit as hard as anyone but def lacked the skill n discipline of many men.

 

I like to rate attributes (power, speed, skill etc) on a 1 to 5 scale. I usually decide what grade to give based on the available footage and the impact I see one's punch does on an opponent. But when rating this attribute (power) one must take into consideration that it is influenced by other factors such as glove size (the smaller, the more damage it does to the opponent) and accuracy (meaning someone who is very accurate, such as Tyson and Louis, will do a lot of damage cause of that).
As for what the numbers mean:
1 = featherfist
2 = weak puncher
3 = average
4 = hard puncher
5 = huge puncher

Some examples at HW:
1 - probably Doug Jones, Chris Byrd
2 - 60s Ali, Young, Usyk, Ellis, Patterson, Machen, Tunney
3 - Holyfield, Bowe, Fury, Vitali, 70s Ali, Frazier, Dempsey, Louis
4 - Tyson, Ruddock, Morrison, Marciano, Shavers, Lyle, Williams
5 - Wilder, Wlad, Bruno, Liston, Lewis, Foreman

Baer is probably a 4.

Not that much different, cause he lacked the skill.

 

Very powerful puncher especially for his day. His technique was lacking though.

 

Read what Baer's punches did to Frankie Campbell in their fight in 1930...

 

Who’s the best heavyweight with the best proven chin that he knocked out?

 

I think he must have hit extremely hard. Especially considering how he really wound up for some of those shots and threw them like wide haymakers. I’m not sure where he rates to the other big punchers but I think his power was enough to hurt even the most durable of men

 

I was today years old when i learnt first career Ali hit with the same power as Jimmy Young and Floyd Patterson. Cowabunga.

 

Patterson had some of the most spectacular 1 punch KOs in history vs Johansson, Cooper, amongst many others. To say Patterson is a weak puncher is ludicrous, even Ali who wasn't a big puncher certainly wasn't a weak puncher.

I couldn't believe what I read when I see WB's list.