Strength of competition. Hasn’t really knocked anyone good to great out. But his knock downs of Fury were impressive.
At the very least, Luis Ortiz was good. More importantly, Wilder consistently starches or seriously hurts experienced, full-grown heavyweights who've never really been hurt before. Often with a single punch. That's impressive no matter how you slice it. Wilder's phenomenal punching power is extremely obvious according to any reasonable eyeball test, which is probably the most useful way of assessing punching power.
He wouldn’t be placed next to these men on a list of his power wasn’t recognized. If he faces Ruiz Fury and AJ again and scores a few KOs his stock will rise in that regard...just my opinion.
Not before he's finished entertaining the patrons with his song and dance act... This content is protected
It’s a trick question. Tex Cobb is in the bar. He’s had a few. He lets each take their best shot, laughs, and cracks them over the head with a beer mug, one at a time, and walks out after having one for the road.
I really don't see how a reasonable argument can be made to claim baer hit harder than foreman and wilder. Baer went the distance quite a few times, sometimes with very unremarkable fighters. You could say this was due to his sloppiness but thats kind of the point of the thread. Foreman and especially wilder could be very sloppy yet they have stopped much more durable/skilled/bigger fighters and have the better resume with higher ko%. Both the numbers and the eye test favor foreman and wilder. I guess the logic is that Baer killed some guys and that he psychologically held back...? That isn't very convincing tbh. Almost impossible to prove or quantify. The numbers and eye test are a much safer bet, I don't care for theories that dont have much solid evidence. Save that stuff for comic book debates. Anyway, foreman would break both their noses in a bar and it wouldn't even be funny. You'd have to be incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to pick a street fight with him (especially 70's foreman who literally mugged people and snatched food from people as he terrorized neighborhoods). That being said, Wilder's right cross with full leverage and weight behind it might have the most raw power of the 3 boxers but it takes him a long time to set it up (giving away multiple rounds int he process before he gets the timing down). Foreman had the better overall 2 fisted power and wasnt shy at all in letting his hands go early and had the hardest clubbing shots. Baer's wildness was an x factor because you couldn't really prepare for it so that's where his advantage was. He was definitely top 10 in sheer raw power don't get me wrong, but to claim he hit harder than these 2 seems like an overestimation that isn't reflected in his actual results.
Baer seems plenty strong to me. I’m currently reading Max Baer clown prince of boxing and just finished the part of the first man who died in the ring with him (sorry his name is on the tip of my tongue will check later). Looking forward to seeing his mind set after because it’s pretty obvious from looking at his record that this seriously affected him going forward. Idk if he held back I heard he did but hopefully I find out more as I read.
Foreman Baer Wilder...the man has power but hasnt proved he can stop world class fighters like the other two. Dont through Ortiz at me the mans closer to 50 than 40 IMO and Fury was dropped by Steve Cunningham.
I never denied it affected him. For all we know his power was #1. But there is no way to really gauge or quantify how much he held back his power due to these incidents. Its really iffy to use as evidence of him being THE hardest hitter of all time. That requires substantial evidence, specifically the eye test, testimonies, and numbers/stats.
