I don't know, but Shavers and 70's Foreman are probably ahead of the Rock in pure head to head torque. Arguments could be made for smaller men having greater proportional/p4p power. He's certainly up there, though. As things stand his punch isn't overrated with most people considering it the hardest of his era and right up there behind the rest historically.
I think what Mr. Rojo is referring to is more of an odd rarity than a trend. It's like when Lewis fans put their man over Ali/Louis/Holmes - or when fans of either Klitscshko start sniffing their way around the top ten. In other words, it happens, yes - but it's not representational of any significant number of non-muppets and therefore can't be called a case of widespread "overrating".
Firstly, let's remember that Marciano only weighed about 185lbs. For that weight, he was murderous, and you'll find it a hard task trying to equal Rocky's demolition record with another fighter of the same poundage. Matthews, Layne, Vingo, Savold, Reynolds, Louis, Walcott, Buonvino, Beshore... He crushed all these fighters. Then there was a style change, the shortening and increased volume of punches - that's when he started grinding fighters down. Charles, LaStarza, Moore, Cockell; and I'm sure that Marciano left each of them with at least some permanent damage.
I didn't get to start going to the fights until the late 50's, but I saw Marciano on tv when a kid and brother are you ever wrong. Marciano had a hambone on each arm and hurt guys whereever he hit them. Marciano was one of the 5 best punchers in history it say here. Clancy said it best when he said Rocky hurt em even when he hit them on the gloves and drove their own gloves into their faces.
Foreman, Shavers, Liston, Klitschko brothers, Tyson, Bowe all most certainly hit harder than Marciano. Marciano could well be hardest puncher P4P.
Foreman's power can just as easily be doubted. Look at all the punches he had to land on Lyle to beat him onto the floor. Look at how he couldn't keep Foreman down for keeps. Some of those fights in his prime, Foreman would pound away at inferior opponents with a terrific volume of punches. Maybe he was just strong and relentless.
I've always championed Shavers in this respect, as all common opponents of Shavers and Foreman rate Earnie higher, while Tillis and Holmes rate Shavers over Tyson. The only two who got hit by Shavers who did not rate him tops were Jimmy Ellis (who I don't think ever knew what hit him), and Jerry Quarry. (Jerry did not even realize Earnie landed on him until viewing the footage the next day, and actually exclaimed during the post fight interview that, "He never hit me!") On the other hand, JQ was clearly impressed with Mac Foster, who did nail him with some tremendous shots. (I'd be very interested to know who Ellis does rate.) Because these exceptions to the supremacy of the power of Shavers are so rare, they deserve to be noted and acknowledged. Ted Lowry rated Moore higher in punching power. For his part, Archie stated immediately after Marciano that, "He's the strongest man I ever fought." (For Holmes, this was Cobb.) Continuing on, Moore said, "I don't know that he's the hardest hitter I ever fought, but he certainly hits hard enough." (That's really the bottom line, isn't it?) A few years later, Archie definitively stated that the first right hand Yvon Durelle floored him with was the hardest single shot he ever took in his career. (I do believe this. Durelle's placement and execution was flawless on that shot, and Marciano was not able to connect on Moore with anything like it.)
Think Moore is feeded his ego, He was able to take Durelle's punchings comeback and win both times, He was unable to take Marciano's punching power.
I not sure who hits harder, Foreman or Marciano in this regard. When Foreman score the knockdowns, the guy just keep getting up. Frazier and Norton and others would get drop and rise, drop and rise again. Marciano on the other hand, needed 1 knockdown, perhaps 2 at the most pre style change and the guy was OUT.
The Marciano of 53 was a truly tremendously powerful puncher. You have to understand that Marciano wasn't the most accurate puncher, but if he caught you in the spot you were in trouble. How many fighters with such limited footage have as many one punch KO's as him? Liston maybe?
Exactly, Foreman bludgeoned people to death. And he had awesome power, but he wasn't accurate or a pin-point puncher. Marciano was similar in this respect, but I think could've placed shots a bit better. Foreman did face comp that was a little bigger. But, he still didn't one punch KO many people. Not even the smaller ones like Roman, and he didn't even ever KO the 190 or so former LHW Peralta.
have you seen pictures of his victims? I wouldnt step in the ring with him for a million dollars......seriously