Is punching power the most overrated attribute in boxing and are devastating punchers a myth?

I mean, we can have a boxer looking like an absolutely devastating puncher in one fight, and then looking like a total feather fist in another fight.

A true devastating puncher is someone who can drop, and pretty much cleanly / brutally KO any and every opponent. At least in fights that he wins.

Over the decades, we've had many so called 'knockout artists', 'devastating punchers' and etc. But they've looked feather fisted in at least one, if not many other fights.

Lennox Lewis was known as a devastating puncher. Knocked out many opponents in emphatic fashion. But was then exposed as feather fisted against a bum named Levi Billups, when his hardest punches seemed to bounce off Billup's entire body like a feather bouncing off a wall. Lewis couldn't KO Billups.

Then we have Mike Tyson, another knockout artist cleanly KO'ing opponents like Larry Holmes. But then getting exposed as light hitting and feather fisted against journeymen like Mitch Green when his hardest punches seemed to not be enough to affect Green much.

We also have George Foreman. Who was rag-dolling guys like Joe Frazier and Ken Norton. But then having his hardest punches absorbed with no problem by bums like Jimmy Young, Axel Schulz and a bunch of other low level heavyweights.

Then we come to probably the most overrated of all. Deontay Wilder! Wilder looked like a murderous puncher against glass chinned and low level journeyman in Artur Szpilka when he brutally KO'ed Szpilka unconscious and had him carried out in a stretcher. But appears totally and utterly feather fisted against Johann Duhaupas a fight before, as if he had the power of a little girl and of a little sissy when all his punches, nearing 1000, just seem to bounce off Duhaupas's face, body and head with almost no affect. Punches that Duhaupas literally walks through for 11 rounds. Like a feather bouncing off a wall.

 

Another one is Luis Ortiz. Looked totally feather fisted against a clown in Dave Allen. Couldn't even drop Allen and barely even hurt him. Whilst looking like a genuine KO artist against guys like Cojanu.

 

What is then (in your opinion)?

 

The term overrated is overrated...

 

If power was overrated then why do we have weight classes?

 

The most overrated attribute is arguably handspeed.

 

Siarhei Liakhovich voted no.

 

Not if your name is Beterbiev.

 

A couple of things...

One, you need to think a little bit more about statistics.

Just because an attribute doesn't present 100 % of the time doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

If a marksman scores a bulls-eye 98 times out of 100, would you highlight the two misses, and say...
" That man couldn't hit a barn door."

Or If you found a number of heavy smokers who lived well into their nineties (some do exist), would you conclude that smoking is an "overrated" attribute in determining longevity ?

And then there's times when a boxer who has stopped eighteen of his first nineteen opponents, and has never gone ten rounds, decides that he needs to get some rounds in, and isn't seeking a stoppage.


Finally, if you want to be taken seriously, you might want to rethink your use of the term "bum" in regard to professional heavyweight boxers, especially those of the calibre of Jimmy Young.

 

No of course it isn’t. People think Mayweather couldn’t rattle a birdcage, but more often than not he’d get fighter’s respect who were much bigger.

 

I wonder how many JY fights he’s seen

 

The most overrated attribute in boxing (if you can call this an attribute), is SIZE.