Was Jake LaMotta the best body puncher of all the middle weight champions?

He was definitely one of the most active. Being a body puncher is one of the best things you can be in boxing and I have admiration for a dedicated fighter who works the ribs.

 

McCallum, Lamotta and Zale were all deadly body punchers. Take your pick.

 

Zale

 

McCallum for me.

 

I agree that Zale hit harder in general than Jake. His KO percentage is much higher than Lamotta's.

 

Are you on drugs antman? No one in the history of mankind has ever even thought of mentioning LaMotta as being the greatest body puncher ever in the middleweight division except you. What are you basing this on? All the huge number of great body shot kos that he never scored in his career or maybe how good a body puncher De Niro looking in the raging bull film?

 

Jake would regularly walk into the ring at light heavyweight (today it would be super middle) weighing in the mid-160s against welterweights who weighed 150-ish with their clothes including boots on. And his body shots didn’t seem to make them wither. Damned sure didn’t do any damage when he fought guys his own size.

 

Yeah- ain't it the truth. But I think a missing part of the equation here is that he didn't specify if he meant hardest or most effective. Jakey couldn't stop many guys in general but he did put a beating on a lot of guys after they were too tired to put up a big effort. In a big way If that's part of the criteria Jake is a solid mention he only won a lot of fights because of his work on the ribs and he least deserves to be talked about.

 

He's certainly in the mix. The Toy Bulldog was pretty impressive too.

 

stanley ketchel and billy papke are better than anyone mentioned and better than lamotta!

 

To qualify as a great body puncher you must have some power, Jake didn't