5 hardest punchers they have faced

Louis = Marciano, M. Baer, B. Baer, Simon, Galento.

Ali = Shavers, Foreman, Liston, Lyle, M. Foster

Holmes = Shavers, Cooney, Tyson, Smith, Mercer

Holyfield = Lewis, Tyson, Foreman, Mercer, Bowe

Lewis = Tua, Tyson, Bruno, Morrison, Ruddock

Wlad = Sanders, Haye, Peter, AJ, Brewster

 

All fair shouts as alternative choices, all of which I considered.

I took your "purely by raw 1 punch power" very literally. E.g. no doubt Schmeling was a greater puncher than B. Baer, Simon and Galento, but giving away c.50-60lbs to each, all of whom were noted punchers, its difficult to imagine that Max's hardest single punch carried as much force.

Equally, I think of Cooper as a puncher much more than I do Bowe. I can see Cooper as the harder single puncher of the 2 in literal terms. But if the much bigger Bowe really committed everything into a single punch, I think that at worst, it would carry roughly equal the force to Bert's best shot.

 

It's not often i disagree with anything you post Greg but i'd heavily back Mike Weaver to be a bigger puncher than Ray Mercer. His laziness and passivity did very little to justify his punching power. He rocked Holmes world on more than one occasion, pole axed Tate in the 15th round and prevailed in a battle of bangers with Coetzee. He was never the same fighter after being shattered by a running left hook by Tony Anthony after the bell from behind IMO. His durability suffered thereafter but he could still wing as witnessed by Carl Williams.

Unfortunately the video i used to link of the dog shot from youtube has been taken down per copyright.

Interestingly if someone named Lionel Butler in the Lewis column via the criteria given i couldn't argue. Trouble is he was too drug wrecked at various stages to show that power off properly. He did belt Tony Tubbs in one round when Tubbs was two fights removed from running Bowe close. Not many people will think of butler and it's somewhat hard to thrust him forward due to such a wasted career with few highlights. I can't even find the clip that used to be up of him ko'ing Tubbs.

Here's comments from Lamon Brewster.

J.S: It’s great to be able to speak with you, Lamont. You had a great, exciting career, and you scored a number of KO’s – one over Wladimir Klitschko of course, and I’ll come to that later. But you were such a tough guy – who hit you the hardest in your career, amateur and pro?

Lamon Brewster: I’ve been asked a few times before who the hardest puncher I ever met was. I must say, It wasn’t anyone I actually fought, it was a guy I sparred. A guy named Lionel Butler – wow, he hit so hard it was ridiculous! I sparred Lennox Lewis, Michael Moorer, Frans Botha – all hard punchers. But no-one hit like Butler. Why he never made it? It’s real simple: Coke. As soon as he began to make it, he looked to score some drugs. Had it not been for that, I’m sure Lionel would have been champ.

 

Louis = Marciano, M. Baer, B. Baer, Carnera, Schmeling.

Ali = Shavers, Foreman, Liston, Frazier, Lyle.

Holmes = Shavers, Cooney, Tyson, Witherspoon, Weaver.

Holyfield = Lewis, Tyson, Foreman, Stewart, Bowe.

Lewis = Tua, Tyson, Bruno, Morrison, Ruddock.

Wladimir = Sanders, Haye, Peter, AJ, Brewster.

@Greg Price99


I agreed with alot of your choices but here's some i disagree with.....

I'm not as knowledgeable on Louis's opposition but maybe Carnera, Schmeling, over Simon and Galento ?

I think Frazier should be over M.Foster.

Witherspoon and Weaver are bigger single punchers than the likes of Mercer and Smith IMO.

I think Stewart maybe over Mercer aswell he had an incredibly high KO ratio.

 

Carnera had a reputation of being feather fisted in his own time. He's absolutely not a puncher. I can't remember Ray Arcel's description of him that was doing the rounds but it wasn't very favorable, power wise.

Personally i'm waiting to see if anyone nominates Walcott on the Louis list. He certainly hit harder than Carnera and tho he had incredible timing in his counters he must have had some serious power as well as he was dropping people (Louis multiple times) with single shots. The shot he axed Ezzard Charles with was an absolute bellringer. I might put him above Schmeling as Max hit Louis with a helluva lot of flush right hands round after round after round. If Walcott hit him that many times that often i can't see how he'd have lasted.

 

Again I don't really know much about that era basically this was me being a boxrec/wikipedia warrior and looking at Carnera's high KO ratio.

Although I think Schmeling should be top 5 definitely.

 

From memory a lot of Carnera's KO's were paid off or easy beats. I'm pretty sure Walcott would make mine.

 

Ali = Shavers, Foreman, Liston, Lyle, Cleveland Williams

 

No problem John. I considered Weaver for Holmes and have no problem with anyone including him over Mercer. I took a literal interpretation of the OP's instruction to base our 5 picks on raw 1 punch power and so factored in Mercer's extra 25lbs over Weaver into the maximum force they could deliver, perhaps I focused too much on size/weight.

Yes, for me this exercise served to demonstrate the sheer volume of power punchers Lewis faced. I was scratching around a bit for Holyfield and a couple of the others by picks 4 and 5, but with Lennox, in addition to the 5 I chose and Butler, I could have selected Briggs, Vitali, Rahman, Mason, McCall, Golata or a past prime Weaver.

 

That's a great point on Lewis Greg. He faced a large array of punchers and you could do a list of 10 without running out of respectable punchers.

 

Where our picks differ, you've certainly selected the better fighter DP.

Simon was c.60lbs heavier than Schmeling and had a higher KO %, admittedly against inferior opposition, despite havimg no where near the skill that Msx had in setting the shots up.

I took a literal interpretation of the OPs request to base our picks on raw 1 punch power ignoring skill, so whilst Schmeling is obviously a greater fighter and greater puncher, I'd guess the much bigger Simon could generate more force with 1 punch than Max, though could be wrong.

Despite his size, I don't consider Canera a big puncher. He completely lacked explosiveness.

Frazier obviously greater than Mac Foster. A greater puncher too. But, raw 1 punch power? I think its arguable either way. Foster won all of his 30 fights by KO, albeit over inferior opposition than Joe's.

I could see Witherspoon and Weaver over Smith and Mercer.

 

I agree, though Mason was damn heavy handed, I'm not sure McCall hit harder, but Tua, Tyson, Ruddock, Morrison, Butler & Briggs likely did.