Anthony Joshua a top 10 puncher

I mean, so far no one has dented Franklin, and he's been in with two of the biggest punchers of this generation, so maybe Franklin just has a very good beard?

 

That. Ngannou's head was like a pineapple sitting on a fence post waiting to be drilled. The subject of Ngannou needs to be laid to rest.

 

Nonsense

 

Why? What would that prove?

 

P4P Shavers is an extremely heavy hitter. He was basically a modern day CW fighting at HW and still knocking fools down. But he was too small to compete with the truly upper echelon hitters like Wlad and Lewis or even the smaller but more compact guys like Tyson and Tua.

Re: Joshua, I don't think he has the same level of spiteful power of a young Wlad or the concussive force of Lewis, but he's not far off. He does have a tendency to peck with his straight shots a bit, sort of pushing them out without engaging his whole body. But when he puts his whole weight into a shot it packs a major wallop. His uppercut is extremely powerful as well and one of the better ones in the HW division historically. But yeah, top fifteen among similar sized heavies is fair.

 

Joshua can hit when he puts his weight into it, but his style is naturally a lot more reticent. If he threw himself into shots the way Wilder does I can't think of a fighter Wilder KOed that Joshua also couldn't KO in similar fashion. And I think Duhaupas takes a nap as well, someone who was able to take Wilder's shots without dropping.

 

Not even top twenty in the current HW division? Blimey, who would you put ahead of him then? As far as I can see the only punchers I'd put above him would be Zhang, Wilder and maybe Bakole and Makhmudov. Perhaps Ngannou hits harder than him but he's almost completely unproven under boxing rules.

 

I think this is the most sensible take in this thread. Yes, Joshua is a very hard puncher and yes, he has the ability to land his power shots on many of the best in the division. Where precisely he ranks among the entire HW division in terms of raw power is a fruitless task to evaluate.

 

Currently, he absolutely is. I think he's top 2.

I was answering from a historical perspective. I don't think any of the above mentioned hits harder other than Wilder.

 

Quite a few top 10 guys there, though.

Personally I used to have him just below the top tiers of HW punchers but his KO's of Helenius and now Ngannou were so violent that I might hike him up a bit. He made 270+ lbs Ngannou slide on his ass with a lead right. That is something we haven't seen much before.

 

Zhang certainly hits very hard, but if AJ got to tee off like that on Joyce... I don't think the first would have ended with a closed eye, but with Joyce out cold.

All around arsenal I'd say Joshua is a bigger puncher than Wilder. He has a very good left hook and uppercut to go with his right. There is some serious power in Wilder's straight/overhand right, though.

 

No just a big clubbing hitter. Power but nothing special.Trevor Berbick type without the chin.

 

I dunno Zhang did drop Parker, something Joshua couldn't do when he fought Parker. So while Joshua probably can KO Joyce, I'm still not sure Joshua hits as hard as Zhang.

Agreed Joshua has the far superior all round arsenal to Wilder. While Wilder's right hand is a bigger punch than perhaps anything Joshua has, which has a lot to do with how much less Joshua loads up, Joshua is easily the more varied and complete puncher.