Who Hit Harder Deontay Wilder, Earnie Shavers or Wladimir Klitschko?

Wilder should not be in the conversation, because, who has he knocked out? He might technically be the right answer, and how could it be proven?

Larry and Ali both said Shavers, and that is respectable, but then again, they never fought Klitschko. I would say Shavers is always going to have that reputation, but one caveat is that WladKlit had both a beautiful hook and a right hand, set up with a very useful jab. He could even hook off the jab, or double and triple up with the hook. Just a very versatile puncher.

 

I am not sure you can determine this in a way that is meaningful

 

A case of "guy that didn't knock me out / hurt me is a harder puncher than guy that did".

 

Yes, there is that.

Similar to Braddock claiming that Baer hit him harder than Louis.

 

Who did Wlad KO??

 

Better than Wilder.

He stopped Byrd, Rahmen and Mercer, though they were all past it. Chagaev. Peter when he was at his best. Pulev. McCline had a good chin.

Maybe not great but better than Deontay.

 

Wlad

 

I think Klitschko because of the caliber of guys he's knocking out and the fact he's doing it with either hand.

Wilder obviously hits very hard too. The Luiz Ortiz KO with almost no windup is very impressive.

 

If we could reliably get peak measurements for everyone's best single punch, it wouldn't surprise me if Wlad was a tick under the other two. Shavers may've had some raw strength above Wilder, Wilder may just be more "explosive" but Wilder's working with more range. I doubt either of these guys would KO the Tony Thompsons Wlad fought, to be frank. The punch is in the landing. Someone like Sam Peter might register higher than anyone of these three if you just have him hit a static target as hard as he can, but it doesn't mean he's landing it that hard in the ring.

 

Out of a single punch wilder is recongnized by all experts as one of the harderst punchers in history . We should agree with this .

 

IMO, much of Wilder's 'power' comes from his lack of fundamentals and unorthodox style - the punch you never see coming is the one you feel is the hardest.

Personally I feel the modern heavyweight division should feel eternally grateful that Zhang was unfit and didn't 'live the life' - I think he had heavier hands and hit harder than Wilder, outside of Wilder's propensity to catch fighters with explosive shots they could see coming due to his strange style.

 

If anything, the opposite argument would make a stronger case for Wilder's power, if he'd been knocking out guys with top quality chins... Ie: that precisely because it was almost always telegraphed and anyone good would see it coming, it doesn't get the sneaky boost.

But of course the biggest problem with rating Wilder's power at all accurately is that because he was so protected, he didn't have the best chins or ring IQs in the opposite corner - so what we have for evidence isn't particularly comparable to guys who fought the best of a given era.

 

Klitschko. He had power in both hands, and it carried into his 40s when he dropped an undefeated Joshua

Shavers hit hard but he doesn’t really compare to Klitschko

Wilder obviously hits hard but it’s more so his twitch reflexes and speed - his power hasn’t really been the same post-2022 because his reflexes have declined.

Whereas Klitschko simply had heavy hands regardless

 

Zhang's power is crazy. Agree with this.