Oh I could not tell, I was unaware of your dynamic with him of extreme exaggeration! Shavers was a far harder puncher than he was effective at KOs & finishing, still I believe he was at one time #1 in KO%. A longer career & not being great at anything but power made it inevitable that rate would decline. Your opinion is very reasonable if you believe that power is that strongly correlated with size. I have a midway position that is not uncommon. Bigger guys tend to hit harder, but around 200 lbs. or so (Shavers averaged ~ 210) it is diminishing returns. So someone with extremely disproportionate power like Julian Jackson can far outpunch his in ring weight, but never rival any decent punching modern HW. An outlier like Shavers can potentially around as hard or potentially harder than anyone. I gave some of the physical reasons why-in terms of his build, & analogies to some his size who are superb at throwing or hitting a ball-where we can measure distance & velocity. There is even at least a single freakish exception Steve Dalkowski who many major leaguers, players, Managers...testified was likely the fastest ever. At 5'10"-5'11", 170-180 lbs. max. EDIT: when you describe the power of Wilder whose lightest weights were around Shavers weight, & say you can hit as hard as anyone with the right "attributes"- that perfectly describes Shavers. Length, muscle, practice, commitment, heavy/huge hands, speed... A small point: anyone who fought at HW, even when the limit was way lower so they might have been something below what a modern day SMW is, was a HW. Now you can say that Shavers was no more than the typical size of a modern day CW-considering rehydration. But since he never fought below 200 lbs., technically he always qualified for the heaviest (minimum) iteration of HW.
I saw this after I posted, great post Markus! Not merely because we agree & that is my middle name, lol!
For one punch power Shavers (though Wilder isn't too far behind). Overall Foreman (though Liston and Wlad weren't too far behind).
Wilder isn't the best puncher,ernie shavers had literally no skill, bob stallings beat mac foster alvin blue lewis , chuck wepner Ernie shavers so these wins do add up sometimes the journey man are not just bums maybe stallings was tough chinned fighter but ofc u say wilder is the best typical causal i bet u better money on canelo and mad he lost to crawford Ahahahahagga
David Tua is the biggest hitter of all time. His t-rex arms and slower feet meant he couldn’t always land but when he did he was out of this world
Ron Lyle, Ali, Norton and Holmes all said that shavers hit the hardest. Given their opposition, I'd wager that's as much evidence needed to solidify him as the hardest hitter.
In terms of raw natural power, I'm backing Wilder. Came to boxing late, f all skills relatively and was KOing guys like he was flicking a light switch. I know his resume leaves a lot to be desired, but the fact that a washed Wilder can turn off guys like Helenius (who did 7 rounds with hard hitting Joshua after) while moving backwards with out his feet being set or anything has to count for something. Overall he is more of a "what if" when it comes to power life time rankings though.
Also has anyone mentioned about how gloves have changed over time? I am not an expert on gloves but my understanding is that they have gotten bigger and more "padded" over time. Meaning that fighter's from previous generations won't carry the same impact in the modern day. But I'm sure someone with more knowledge can correct me.
Basically, this... He looked like he hits very hard, and it's clearly not 100% illusion. The problem is his resume is horrible and it's much easier to swing at max power when you have little to nothing to fear because you're fighting low quality opponents all the time. Heck, the punch Joshua threw at Ngannou looked as hard or harder than anything Wilder ever threw, knocked out a man with much more proven durability (albeit not specifically as a boxer)... Yet Joshua is never in these discussions - the big difference is he fought guys a level or two above the vast majority Wilder fought. I just can't bring myself to give Wilder credits as any kind of ATG (including power) when his career is primarily defined by him having hid from anyone dangerous until he'd been beaten by a cherrypick gone wrong.
4 years ago... Sometimes fighters prove you wrong... Other times they simply prove you even more right.
Its hard to say because pretty much all HWs hit so fcking that at the top level that its very hard to make any distinction. Like how are you gonna differentiate the power between Mike Tyson and AJ when both can knock tf out of any human being on the planet with a clean right hand. Best I can do is group them in tiers, and the S tier would probably have guys like Foreman, Wladimir, Wilder, Zhang etc.
Sanders is worth a shout. Had dynamite in that left hand. Tua also packed a great punch, as did Povetkin with the left hook. Wilder is not even in the conversation for me. Fury doesn’t have the best chin, he landed hard and often on it and couldn’t get him out of there.
What if it's someone who we wouldn't expect? Because it's the skilled fighters who put themselves in a position to land those shots.
It's Shavers and Foreman second place. Names like Holmes, Ali, and Lyle have already been mentioned, and they all choose Shavers. Even 80s boxers like James Tillis, who stood in the ring against Tyson, Morrison or Bruno, said Shavers was by far the hardest puncher. The most overrated here is Klitschko. None of the High ranked opponents are talking about him. Tyson Fury said Wilder punches harder than Francis Ngannou by a mile , he never named Klitschko. Anthony Joshua named Kubrat Pulev as one of the most powerful punchers he faced. No words about Klitschko. Klitschko is rated way too highly here; some even say he's the hardest puncher on the list. Ridiculous.