Marciano had bone crushing power for being 185-190 pounds...can you image Marciano today in the cruiserweight division? He would KO everybody.
There are definately some hardhitters down history - I am going with my man Tyson though on this one, but didn't Max Baer kill two guys in the ring? Nonetheless modern time, I go for Tyson.
agreed totally Ali reckoned shavers hit harder than foreman an so did a couple of others who fought em both. Holmes said when shavers hit him he was unconcious immediatly and it was the bang when he hit the canvas that woke him up
Ali fought Liston, Frazier, Foreman, Lyle and Shavers and said that Earnie hit the hardest. End of Story Shavers' right is the hardest single punch in heavyweight history.
Why don't you read his biographies, listen to his own statements and the statements of people around him instead of coming up with whatever reason you like best and then inserting it into history? Marciano retired because: A. He was losing his motivation in training and his vigor for fighting, B. His family had been pressuring him to retire for some time, C. He was fed up with his manager, who was a control freak, had been taking huge cuts of his money, and who he had recently found out had embezzled $10,000 he should've gotten for the Cockell fight, and D. there was no serious big money fight to be made at the time. Patterson hadn't done anything very noteworthy at heavyweight when Marciano retired, and most sportswriters thought he would have to rematch Moore to get serious competition.