It's such a shame Zhang is old and has some of the worst stamina ever seen on the big shows. He has also regressed enormously in terms of stamina since Hrgovic where he looked like a marathon runner in comparison.
When fighters are asked who hits the hardest Zhangs name has never come up. It's just a bit weird. Kabayel said zhang hit hard but also the punch that put him down wasn't that powerful. Although by feats he does have the best with cracking Joyce chin
Zhang's timing is very very underrated as well when he throws a punch, hes slow to react to things going against him though.
Dubois has the 2nd highest KO rate of any HW champ. All 3 of Zhangs losses saw fighters come back from knockdowns. If a fighters best opponents can consistantly come back from their knockdowns and win what does that say? Its not that simple of course Zhang has no cardio and is terrible at pressing the advantage after a knockdown. But still if he hit hard enough it wouldn't matter.
Zhang has dropped or KO'd everyone since he decided to become a boxer at age forty. And these are all contenders he's hurting and 'tough' opponents. It's clear now he could very well have KO'd AJ and Hearn definitely feels validated advising AJ to duck him.
But that does seem to be a common thing. Boxers often say fighter A hit hardest even if that fight went the distance when fighter B sparked them out cold. I t's a weird phenomena and I guess it's due to the fact there are 2 types of punchers. The heavy handed types that just bludgeon you but you hang in their for a while and feel their power until they break you or the explosive punchers that touch you once and you are gone. Those guys are like Zhang, they discombobulate you and so you don't feel their power because your brain is scrambled. Sometimes the fighter is so discombobulated they don't even realise they were dropped, I've see a few fighters complain they never went down, while they stagger around in front of the ref lol. You simply can't trust their view because the moment they got hit cleanly by fighter B there cognitive ability was vastly compromised.
Zhang by a mile. Dubois' win against joshua looked incredibly good for him but that's it. Maybe ruiz is automatically also one of the hardest punchers then? Joyce and miller took hundreds of punches by Dubois'. Hrgovic has a great chin but still, he was able to take his punches better than his headbutts... Dubois is really good but if we're not in an action-figure-fantasy-world he doesn't have to be the hardest puncher just because he is now better than zhang. He can't compete with zhang's punch. Second ko vs joyce was one of the hardest hits I have ever seen by anyone. And dubois has a tenseness in his body and a kinetic chain that prevents him from generating that kind of effortless speed and power like zhan does
You chose to interact with me and you chose the framing. In just 6 words we're already in a childish debate. Well done.
Why doesn't someone ask Hrgovic and Big Joe Joyce who the hardest puncher is out of Dubois and that big sexy Chinese man? Whilst Dubois throws more shots than Big Bang the later landed a lot more power shots on Big Joe Joyce than Dubois did and Big Joe Joyce was more wary of getting hit by Dubois. Dubois' power turned Big Joe Joyce into a jab merchant Big Bang is a lot bigger than Dubois too. 33lbs and 43lbs heavier than Dubois albeit Big Joe was a lot heavier himself in the rematch against Big Bang than he was in the first fight and vs Dubois Shame Dubois didn't fight J-Park because then we could ask him who hit harder too
Zhang obviously. He drops almost everyone he fights, usually with single shots that come out of nowhere. Dubois needs to hurt guys then pour it on to stop them. Only puncher that comes close to Zhang at the moment is Bakole.