Where would you rank Zhang among the greatest heavyweight punchers in history?

He's a huge puncher. I'm going to abstain from the poll, but he's the biggest puncher I've seen personally. If punching was measured by how often you punched the guy vs how often you hurt them I have no doubt he'd rank very high historically. Never seen a guy get reactions like he does. Kabayel took his punches though, that brings him down a bit


I have no doubt he hits harder than Dubois

 

I think punching power has to be measured by actually watching the fighter to some extent, can't just be decided by who they KOd

 

What makes you think I haven't watched Zhang?

But if I hadn't, it wouldn't be as though I'd missed anything particularly special.

 

Greatest Asian heavyweight of all time!!

 

heavy hands, much like foreman, but not on that level. hes above average, but below the top 10%, would be my estimation. hes stopped a bunch of randos. when the guys you couldnt ko are hrgovic, parker and kabayel, what is it really saying? not exactly historically significant figures. at least not yet. but hes huge, so if he catches you clean and static or walking in, hes gonna hurt you.
his money is made with his timing, its very good. if he gets a feel for your rhythm, hes going to set you up.

 

I wasn't trying to imply you hadn't

 

I would say top #2 next to Wlad.

#1- Wlad / Zhang
#3 - Lewis / Joshua
#5- Foreman
#6- Shavers / Wilder
#8- Tyson

But if we are talking for their size/era..

1- Foreman / Marciano
3- Louis
4- Shavers / Wilder
6- Tyson
7- Dempsey
8- Wlad

 

Shavers and Wilder should rank a lot higher on a P4P scale. Shavers was basically a rehydrated Cruiserweight and Wilder wasn't much bigger. Also where's Tua? No good list should ever leave him out.

 

Yes, you would have missed something special. Who's your standard for top level HW puncher anyway? Let me see if I can't pick it apart.

 

No, I wouldn't have.

See the post from @bandeedo above.

Sorry, my guy.

 

I would say top 10.

Guy hit like a mule and hurt fighters with great chins.

Sadly lacked the gas tank and other attributes but still a great puncher, with both hands (which is unusual for left handers)

 

That’s simply not true.

 

Zhang isn’t special. Give us all a spell.

He’s a fat slob who is in his 40’s and has never been regarded as good enough to get a title shot.

Yeah, he hits hard but there’s nothing at all about Zhang that is extraordinary. There are plenty of guys who pack more heat than him.

 

Give him good stamina and he is super special. I think that is what makes him so interesting to think about for many of us. He only got his shot at relevant heavies when he was very old and then he was so much better than expected. Is heavy like a tank but fleet footed when darting in-and-out. Has proper punching technique for all his punches generating massive force and speed with little effort and signalling, when parker and dubois have to hurl their whole body into the punch. Zhangs punches are technically better, like klitschko's e.g.

The mistake in judgement might be that we just think he would have been better when younger but maybe in reality he never had good stamina and thus 'prime zhang' would not have been too much better than the zhang we saw against joyce etc.

But zhang with good stamina, probably making him less reluctant to finish guys could have been a historic figure in heavyweight boxing. Joshua is one after all and technically zhang is better, quicker, slicker, smarter, smoother in almost every department. And his punches are better. No way joshua would have beaten joyce the way zhang did

 

One of the hardest ever, top 5 for sure.

Lets remember he is 280-300lbs of pure power.

Fighters back in the day were 6'3 and 220lbs.