Yup...Followed by a prime Julio Chavez...That Mexican was a mean machine to the body. But I also say Mcullum takes the cake here.
I'll mention the likes of Olivares, Zale, Frazier, Zarate, Arguello. McCallums right up there, but not the best for mine.
I love a good body puncher. Guys today who are looking to make their mark as all time body punchers are Cotto and Floyd. The others are good but these two look like they can go down as great body punchers. All time I think I'd go with Duran and Hearns. Not that they are necessarily the best but what I liked how sneaky they were downstairs. Duran was effortless in his approach. I think it was v Leonard where he landed some **** like 6 punch combo with 3 body shots. The sequence of punches was just nuts. Take Hearns v Cuevas. People don't realise that in the first he landed jabs, straights and hooks downstairs. It was the right hand that was prominent but you forget the sweeter things that he did.
yeah hearns was mean to the body his left hook seemed to right round the guard and smack them in the baby ribs. look at barkley-hearns barkley was bending over just to breath from the body shots. hearns-leonard II leonard just came apart at the end. and hearns-james shuler 3 hit combo to the ribs. all were just tapped to the ribs. also i feel that mosley is a good body puncher...especcialy form olympians who rarly go to the body
Hearns was consistently amazing to the body and with every shot. Take Duran fight for example. People don't realise what Hearns did to Durans body. I don't know how Barkley survived the first bout. I think this is simply further proof of Hearns losing a little something at 160. A fighter at 147 or 154 can't take that sort of ****. Barkley wasn't just a middleweight he also went as high as 175. He was a big *******.
I like Chavez. McCallum was also great in this regard. Pernell Whitaker is sometimes overlooked here because of his lack of ko's. Whitaker is not as good as the other 2 mentioned in this post, but he was damn good at including the body in his offense.
I think he was a round away at the most from being stopped, either by cuts or those body punches. Agreed that Hearns bodywork was a thing of violent beauty. I think the Shuler fight is a prime exhibition of bodywork by Tommy. That left hook to the floating ribs is right up there with his left jab and right cross IMO.
When Duran was trailing on points late against Vilomar Fernandez, he found that his head shots were simply having no effect on Vilomar, who in addition to being an extraordinarily skilled defensive boxer, could hold up to a tremendous blow to the head. With his title on the line, Duran went downstairs on Fernandez and dropped Vilomar for the count in round 13. (This was a highly rated live broadcast, and a match well worth studying.) Jack Dempsey was in the same situation heading into round 12 of his title defense against Bill Brennan. Jack had handled Brennan fairly easily in their first match, and violated the celibacy rule in taking "KO Bill" too lightly for their rematch. (The unexpected ease of his first championship defense against a fatally ill Billy Miske may also have contributed to a dangerously cocky attitude on his part.) Jack went to the body in that final round, and Brennan was not able to beat the count. The Mauler also dropped Carpentier with a bodyshot, and fractured Jess Willard's left short ribs with a hook that lifted Jess several inches off the canvas about 30 seconds before the fight's end. Tony Zale and Joe Frazier should be mentioned, as should Euzebio Pedroza. RJJ's dethroning of Virgil Hill may be the single most devastating one punch kayo to the body in non HW title history. Fitzsimmons and Jeffries also won the heavyweight championship with single bodyshots. Jose Torres essentially won the LH title with a left hook to Willie Pastrano's liver area. Alexis Arguello dropped Andy Ganigan for the count with a double uppercut to Ganigan's solar plexus, causing Andy to writhe on the deck in excruciating agony as the referee tolled ten. Sean O'Grady's second round right hand drive down into Hilmer Kenty's torso was the single most devastating looking early round bodyshot I've viewed on a live broadcast. Normally, a boxer needs to be a lttle worn down to be floored with a bodypunch like that. It looked as though it should have run Hilmer completely through, like a sword. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad had an outstanding body attack from the outside, and he decimated Marvin Johnson with it. (At his very best, Eddie was truly a complete fighter.) Carlos Palomino's body assault carried him to the WBC WW Title over John Stracey. I tend to look at whoever could win a decision or kayo victory with bodyshots. While Marciano, Shavers, and Foreman could all bomb with tremendous power, I don't immediately recall instances where they clearly would not have won without going downstairs, or where bodyshots were the immediate cause of victory. At the moment however, these are the names and instances which come to my mind, among the situations I'm most familiar with. While McCallum was a truly great bodypuncher, whenever I saw him perform, it was ironically his kayo and KD punches upstairs which caught my eye. Ken Norton won a close and controversial decision over Jimmy Young by ignoring Young's head in favor of point scoring body punching. Young himself could score points effectively with his body attack. You can easily supplement this list with outstanding examples I've overlooked, or am not aware of.
Joe Louis was a top body puncher. He wasn't the kind that dedicated half his time grinding away to the ribs like Frazier or Armstrong, but he picked his shots carefully, throwing them hard and accurately. Louis knockout of Red Burman looked painful. I love Louis' actions after he lands the left hook to the body, bouncing back and forth on his toes ready to explode - Burman was wise to surrender when he did, because Louis would have crushed him.