Are punchers BORN or MADE?

It seems like these days we constantly hear about how punchers are born and not made, that it's impossible to make a good puncher : either you have it or you don't. Even the great Cus d'Amato and Teddy Atlas don't believe punchers are made. While practicing boxing, my interest came across a book written by an old legend in the name of Jack Dempsey. This book is called Championship Fighting - Power Punching and Aggressive Defense, and the chapter 3 of the book is called Punchers Are Made; Not Born.

Long story short, Jack Dempsey goes on to explain in the 3rd chapter that most fighters who are under the spotlight, himself included, believe their power is natural and not acquired through practice, and it's only once his career was over that he realized his power was due to the fruit of hard work and understanding the different principles of hard punching, it took skills. Just like the tree hides the forest if you're too close to it.

The art of punching was already falling off, according to Dempsey, during his era, and did not hold the same standard as the more ancient boxers of the days of John L. Sullivan. The Jolt punching technique for example has been written off by many boxers from their textbook, the idea is that it's not good defense wise, something Dempsey did not agree with.

If we think about 2 prominent heavyweight boxers of today, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, a lot of people will claim that Tyson Fury has all the skills in the world and Wilder's technique "stinks" (dixit Teddy Atlas). This leads a lot of people to believe that Wilder's only talent is a natural one, and that he has no boxing skills whatsoever, and the lack of power from a Tyson Fury is due to not having that natural ability, rather than not having or exercising the skills.

I wonder if many people here practice boxing and if they believe that punchers are MADE or BORN, what do you think?

As for me, I tend to believe what Jack Dempsey believes, that punchers can be made.

 

Both means he has to be born with it, but has to sharpen it, and it also means that if he's not born with it he will never be made into it. So what you truly mean is "born".

 

When you say "look at their skill set" what do you mean exactly? Are we talking about all the boxing skill sets like footwork, head movement, etc, or are we talking about power punching skill set? A lot of the top 10 most skilled boxers are not focusing that much on power punching techniques, and rely mostly on creating opportunities, not getting hit and all that kind of stuff. Those 10 men who are considered the hardest punchers, in opposition to the top 10 most skilled, might have a much better power punching technique, doesn't necessarily translate into being the P4P #1 boxer in the world tho.

 

It seems to me like you believe a great part of punching power can be improved, be it by specific strength & conditioning exercises, or because people picked it up eventually in their pro career. Remember, even the great Jack Dempsey used to think he was born with it, until he changed his mind, here's a short part of what he said :

"If you're a punching champion it's natural for you to get the wrong appreciation of yourself. Hundreds of admirers pat you on the back and tell you what a "natural-born" fighter you are. And when you're swept along toward seventh heaven by the roar of the crowd in your magnificent moments of triumph, it's easy to forget the painstaking labor with which you and your instructors and trainers and sparring partners fashioned each step in your stairway to the throne. It's easy to forget the disappointments and despair that, at times, made the uncompleted stairway seem like "Heartbreak Hill." Ah yes, when you're on the throne, it's easy to regard yourself as one who was born to the royalty of the ring. In your heyday as champion, you can't "see the forest for the trees." As an historian might express it, you're too close to your career to get the proper perspective of highlights and background. It was only after I had retired and had begun trying to teach others how to fight that I investigated the steps in my stairway-analyzed my own technique."