Best Heavyweight Left Hooks

I don't doubt Tua had a harder left hook than Frazier, but the thread asks for the best left hook which i assume (hope i'm right lol) would mean the best overall and not just the hardest. Would you rate the Tua hook as better under this criteria?

 

DEMPSEY.

 

Hard to tell... i mean you can't seperate a man's left hook from his body!
If Frazier applied Tua's hook as often as he did his own, he would've been even harder to beat than he is now. If Tua applied Frazier's hook as often as he did his own, then he would've been weaker.
Then again, Tua's hook being harder maybe took a little more out of stamina and bulk... so it's hard to see them as seperate entities without looking at the fighters. Frazier's hook was hard to see coming but he had to apply it over and over (bar a few lesser fighters like Zyglewic) to wear his opponent down, whereas Tua could lay you out with a single one.

 

You know this has been brought up before but with all the hoopla over the numbing right that Shavers had, that left hook he laid on Lyle looked as good and as hard as they come. Lyle was finished with that one shot; only the bell saved him.

Note: interesting that Ali could become such an all time great lacking in a few areas:
>no body punching.
>a LEFT HOOK that was nothing to write home about.
>he wasn't a great defensive fighter as far as the prototype definition
of great defense goes; that is to say, he stayed away, leaned away, but never really developed that inside defense ala Pep, Benitez, etc...

 

And Frazier didn't have all that much offense besides his left hook. And Foreman had horrible defense+balance. Yet they are all all-time-greats. Sometimes it's not about what you have, but how you impose it on your opponent.

 

And this is exactly why i consider Frazier hook much better than Tua's, it was pretty much all he had yet he made ATG status easily based on this main weapon. He imposed it far better than Tua. He may have went out on his shield, but based on hindsight i think Frazier's left hook would have been far more dangerous to say Lewis, while he lasted. Joe's left hook was pure intensity and i think it's power might be a tad underrated nowadays.

 

although he wasn't a great,henry cooper had a viscous left hook.

 

Very true Ron. Very true. Considering his weight, it was a terrific shot.

 

Add Frazier and there goes my list. And replace Wlad with Holyfield and you have my list.

 

Tyson
Frazier

 

Seconded. The left hook he applied in scoring his first knockdown of Willard caved in Jess's cheekbone, and he was hopping his 245 pound victim completely into the air with his hook to Willard's body in round three. He literally wrote the book on how to execute this punch, and Bruce Lee converted Jack's instructions into western boxing's major contribution to the Oriental martial arts.

In round one of his first match with Frazier, Jerry Quarry landed 54 left hooks, 20 of them to Smoke's body. At his best, Jerry' hook was a machine gun.

Mike Dokes did not telegraph his hook against Gardner. He could use it like a jab. Dynamite had broad shoulders, but short arms for somebody with an 80 inch overall reach, and these factors combined to give him what was arguably the fastest hook in division history.

Like Dokes, Norton was also capable of using his hook like a jab, and did just that to the head and body of Scott LeDoux over the first three-quarters of their scrap. (LeDoux thumbed Kenny late, then dropped him and managed to obtain a dubious hometown draw.)

Pinklon Thomas was a one-armed bandit with his left, dismantling Quick Tillis with his jab and hook exclusively (while Angelo Dundee screamed out instructions from ringside to his charge Tillis in frustration).

Nat Fleischer rated the hook of Fitzsimmons at the top of his list, but he never saw Fitz at his best. (I consider his solar plexus punch to have been a lead left uppercut cross, delivered as it was from Bob's shifted position.)

Sam Langford took out Harry Wills twice with a single left hook.

Tony Galento's left hook is not something to be ignored. Neither is the double left hook which Marciano unceremoniously disposed of Matthews with.

Mike Weaver's hook destroyed both Carl Williams and Big John Tate.

 

Fantastic post Dod, as usual

 

Not to nitpick...but I remember that Tua knocked Moorer out with his right....(or do I remember it wrong?)

 

Frazier
Tyson
Morrison

 

Frazier
Dempsey
Tua
Morrison
Tyson