Who was the greatest combo puncher in heavyweight history?

Why Joe Louis over Mike Tyson?

 

Joe Louis and Evander Holyfield do seem to spring immediately to mind.

I don't recall Evander throwing one punch at a time too often. Most of the memorable highlights of his career, whether they were knockouts or not, were of Evander just bouncing one hard combo after another off peoples' heads.

They were both excellent combination punchers. The punches just seemed to flow once they started.

 

Louis, Patterson, Ali, Tyson, Holyfield were the best / most effective combination punchers in the HW devision. Although all in a different way.
- Louis had the most accurate, controlled and well timed combinations. Best punch selection also.
- Patterson put some of the fastest hook and bodyshot combinations together.
- Ali liked to deck his opponents with a hailstom of lightning fast straight hands.
- Tyson put the best power punch combinations together, wile generating much force through rotation and from the ground.
- Holyfield also had great speed, accuracy, smart punch selection and some of the best in and out moving / distance controll i've ever seen.

All great in a different way. Hard to choose one. + I think Tommy Morrison had the "best looking" combinations...so elegant he let those punches flow, rolled his upper body...all the rotation and knee bending so fluid and picture perfect. But he was still that vulnerable when he attacked.
Dokes also had similar speed of Ali / Patterson but had a lack of accuracy, timing and punch selection.

 

Nice avatar! I just noticed there is a cherry IROC Z in the pic.

 

Holyfield was only good at peppering his opponents this is because Holy field is not actually a true heavyweight. Light weight at best. Therefore he lacked the sheer power of Tyson and other big name contenders. So while visually he might actually be able to mimick a Tyson combo, in reality, they have no real knockout power, so likey I said Holyfield, with that lack of knockout power in both hands, has to resort to peppering his opponents with many many combinations in succession if he really wanted it.

 

Glad you mentioned Rocky. His combination punching is rarely mentioned. I believe it came from practicing combinations on the heavy bag and developing muscle memory. The combination punches that he threw at the end of the first round against Harry Matthews was unbelievable, IMHO, especially when you look at it slowed down.