Biggest HW Puncher of the 21st Century

He was washed up going into Lewis but he was a lot worse on the other side of him. Lewis pummeled him for multiple rounds and would have taken plenty of whatever he had left.

Williams and McBride were a full two and three years later. He was a shell of the shell he'd been against Lewis.

 

"P.S. Wilder sure didn't get back up to beat Zhang."

Zhang knocked down his 6 best opponents. Wilder and Joyce are the only ones Zhang went on to beat. It would appear Zhang is much more effective against fellow power punchers who are going to be less used to getting put down.


Zhang was a terrible matchup for Wilder but as one trick ponys if Wilder did his trick he usually won(or didn't lose). If Zhang landed his trick there was still a good chance he'd lose.

 

Ortiz might be better then every single one of Wlads opponents. He most likely wasn't better then Wlad but its fairly likely he was the 2nd best HW of that era(H2H clearly).

Ortiz was 38 and 40 when Wilder beat him. He really wasn't that old and its a total double standard compared to Povetkin, Pulev and Wlad himself. Its almost 2026 and good fighters are still ducking Ortiz.

Wlad has power but a lot of his best wins were shutouts and hug fests. Theres a reality where the less one dimensional a puncher is the less credit they will get for being a puncher because they didn't rely on that single attribute as much to win.

 

Zhang hasn't got much wind. His output is shockingly low so if he's getting outboxed/pointed he can't up the ante. So even if he drops guys he lacks the wind and mobility for extended follow ups to get them out of there. It's not so much his punch as his other facets.

If Zhang reached his peak a lot earlier when he was younger he would have been better off.

 

While being younger couldn't hurt this trend goes back to him being 37. And its not how he responds to being behind its how he can't hold leads.

The first full fight of Zhangs career was against Rudenko when he was 36. He swept the final 3 rounds to win a fight where he actually didn't score a KD. I think he is physically capable of upping the ante at the top level he has to rely on power more. I recall when talking about this another thread someone brought up Zhang had some health difficulty around the time of the Forrest fight but other than that theres a huge jump. Forrest>Rudenko is probably a meaningful one too but he let Forrest come back from 3 10-8s without getting knocked down himself. He would have won without a point deduction but still it was 10 rounds. He was up 6 points with 7 to go.

 

So I'm going to go Zhang on his best punch and probably Wlad second. Zhang's considerably more massive than the rest of them, he has a surprisingly fast delivery for such a big unit, and moreover he's a good boxer that will set his man up for the big bomb.

That's not to say he's the best boxer or the best fighter here. His pathetically small gas tank and snore-inducing workrate are obviously why he's not sending people to the morgue straight from the ring.

 

Lamon Brewster.

 

I would pick him to beat all those people.

Bryant Jennings was really good.

 

Between Klitchko and Joshua.

Wilder could be certainly argued if people claim an Earnie Shavers was the hardest puncher of the 70s.

 

It's Wlad or Wilder.

 

Who did Ortiz beat to make you form this opinion?
I was ringside when a 9 fight Joyce beat him.

 

Wilder never fought Hrgovic or Kabayel. There's no evidence that he'd knock them down and keep them down, or knock them down at all, or that he'd beat them at all.

And Wilder lost to Parker clearly. Zhang should not get down-graded for scoring knock-downs and making it close against the same fighter.

 

Dunno if it’s true or not but I hear Zhang has knocked down every opponent that he’s fought?

 

Ortiz might make the Top 7 of Wlad's opponents.