Who hit the hardest: Ali, Holmes, or Usyk?

i'd think holmes.

 

Honestly I think Usyk does. None of the three are particularly hard hitters but Usyk moves guys when he sits down on his punches.

 

Pre-1967 Ali before his hands went bad

 

It's Ali I think. He was the only man to stop Oscar Bonavena which both Frazier and Ron Lyle failed to do. He's also the only man to stop George Foreman. Very underrated in the power aspect.

 

I think Larry Holmes uppercut is probably the single hardest punch between the three men. But that’s just one type of punch. Who has more power overall ? Not sure. I will say that Usyk has rocked some pretty big men.

 

Both of those stoppages/knockouts had more to do with stamina failure on the opponent’s part than power though

 

While true, Ali was hurting them with punches before the knockouts that contributes to the stamina drainage I'd say. Ali wobbled a lot of his opponents as well including men like Sonny Liston.

 

That single left hook out of nowhere in the 15th round after a head fake by Ali absolutely pulverized Bonavena, just ruined him. He didn’t look like he was about collapse from fatigue until that moment.

 

Ali.

How is this close? Ali stopped Bonavena, Foreman and Liston. None of these men had been stopped before. Bonavena and Foreman were never stopped by any men besides Ali.

If you want to make the size excuse, fine. Who did Usyk stop at cruiserweight who was especially durable? Bellew had been stopped before and was past it. Huck had been stopped by a light hitting Cunningham before.

Usyk rocking big men with average chins like Joshua and Fury isn't some great achievement. And Dubois is not a durable fighter either.

The excuse that it was an accumulation of shots makes no sense. Ali was snapping Foreman's head back with big right hands from round 1. Ali rocked Foreman and backed him up in round 5. Ali was rocking Liston in round 1 of their first fight.

Bonavena was stopped by a big left hook by Ali. And the excuse that Ali hit him illegally is just that: an excuse.

Ali hits harder than Usyk and Holmes. If you can't stop durable opponents and you have a grand total of 2 ko's in 8 heavyweight fights, you are not a harder puncher than a man who stopped highly durable fighters multiple times.

 

Ali, Holmes has better single punch power tho

 

I know you don't think much of Lyle, but the big right hand out of nowhere was something else. That wasn't a fatigue stoppage. Ali was doing the nothing the entire fight. Cosell was so bored he was going on some tangent and had to catch up with the action.

 

1. Muhammad Ali stopped George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, Jerry Quarry (twice), Jimmy Ellis, Oscar Bonavena, Ron Lyle, Floyd Patterson (twice), Cleveland Wililams, Zora Folley, Henry Cooper (twice), Archie Moore ...

2. Larry Holmes stopped Mike Weaver (twice), Bonecrusher Smith (twice), Leon Spinks, Muhammad Ali, Gerry Cooney, Earnie Shavers, Ossie Ocasio, Renaldo Snipes ...








3. Oleksandr Usyk has stopped Daniel Dubois (twice), Tony Bellew and Marco Huck.

 

I think some people are using the word “ stopped “ a bit too generically. Yes Muhammad Ali “ stopped “ a lot of durable fighters, some of whom had never been stopped before. But we also have to ask ourselves if “ power “ was the true culprit in some of those “ stoppages “. Sonny Liston quit in between rounds as the result of a bad cut. In the rematch he appeared to be out cold but that was widely speculated to be a dive . George Foreman was positively exhausted in Zaire when he went down. Stamina may also have been a factor in the Bonavena fight . Someone even mentioned the thrilla in Manila in which Joe Frazier’s corner threw in the towel because he couldn’t see anymore. While all these instances were perfectly legit “ stoppages “ or “ knockouts “ I’m not so sure how many of them had to do with punching power.

 

Not meaning to get off topic, I don’t think Lyle was an utter jabroni, he was a dangerous opponent, I just don’t think he was as great as some people here do and I get weary of them blathering about how he’d knock out Joe Louis and people like that. Plus at least one source has called into question his “compelling” back story which is one of the reasons people are so enamored with him.

That being said, when Ali sat down on his punches with intent, he could mess people up. He was swiveling Foreman’s head in Zaire and then in Manila when he was exhausted and running on fumes he knocked Frazier’s mouthpiece into the cheap seats.