can a case be made for Lewis being the hardest hitting heavyweight of all time?

Mike Weaver actually had a pair of excellent one punch knockouts in back-to-back title bouts against WBA Champions Tate and Coetzee, taking out Tate with a hook, and Coetzee with a right, sending them both down for the count. That has to be one of the most graphic demonstrations of single punch knockout power in either hand in HW history. (Later, he nearly turned the trick again with a hook on Carl Williams.)

Once Shavers blacked out Ellis, virtually everybody went out of their way to avoid getting nailed by Earnie.

After Mitch Green took Tyson the distance without going down, a number of writers likened his power as more closely resembling that of Frazier than Foreman.

 

No.

 

I'd say it is possible. I'd have him high but not 1, though it is possible.

Compare the guys he and Tyson fought, Tyson put away one faster.

Look at the guys who survived Lewis wrath and we are talking about iron wills and iron chins like Holy and Tua.

 

Not #1 but way up there. Everything he threw had a meaning. His probing jab was emphatic. His right hand devastating. He was cautious in his approach but ruthless in his finish.

I think Joe Louis is as good as it got but size for size Lewis would destroy him.

 

It's possible.

I agree with Chris Pontius that once you reach a certain level, it's really impossible to distinguish between various fighters as to raw punching power.

How do we possibly tell who hit harder, Foreman or Shavers? All we can go on is a common opponent's testimony, which may not be that reliable to start with (after all, how can anyone remember the blow that knocked them out?) and what our eyes tell us.

Personally, I'd probably include Lewis with the elite punchers.

 

No ****ing way.

He was a great puncher, with great raw punching power, but not close to being the best ever. He was certainly not as powerful a puncher as Tyson to compare from his era.

The likes of Shavers, Foreman, Liston, among others, packed a more powerful punch.

No case can be made.

 

As usual, a quality post. Of course i agree as well. The other thing is if Lewis spent a career swinging from the rafters like Shavers he would have had more losses, but WTF would his right hand have been doing to people

:!:

 

Why wasn't he? You are confusing punching technique and dynamics with raw punching power. Tyson was a dynamite puncher at his best which was where he utilized speed and combinations as well as raw power. Lewis is at least 6 inches taller than Tyson and was roughly 15 to 30 pounds heavier at various times. Plus he also had much greater leverage due to his height and long arms. I'd be surprised if Lewis wasn't by some margin a bigger one shot puncher than Tyson.

Perhaps, perhaps not. As ChrisPontius eloquently stated after a certain level it all becomes somewhat irrelevant.

Of course a case can be made. The very fact that this thread has gone to 4 pages at the current time of counting proves that. If there was no case this thread would not have made it past page 1.

 

I would say tyson's shot against frans botha when mike was looking rather **** was his best shot ever..

He said in a interview with aussie t.v that he felt the frans botha shot was his best one.

I think topics like this are **** as its absolutely NOT POSSIBLE to say who hits harder UNLESS ANYONE ON HERE HAS BEEN HIT BY EVERY KNOWN HEAVYWEIGHT BOXER???.

IM WAITING......:bart

 

What convinces you that Liston, Foreman and Shavers are so far above him in terms of power that there's "no ****ing way" you can make a case for Lewis?

How many one punch KO's did Foreman and Liston have again?

 

Look what Marciano did to him in the rematch. And to be honest, I can see Lewis going 15 rounds with Charles. Charles was a great fighter. The KO over Tubbs was impresive, but still doesn't hold a candle light to Marciano KO over Walcott. None of Tyson's 1 punch KO's can.

 

An emphatic yes. :good

He's up the in the very top tier alongside Liston, Foreman, Tyson and Shavers et al. :yep

 

Ponitus & Holmes' Jab has it right. We can all go around in circles all day about the number one spot and it would be an exercise in futility.

It makes more sense to consider tiers: First tier: Tyson, Shavers, Lewis, Foreman, and ~Liston. Second tier, third tier, and so on.

 

Add Louis to the first tier and you have me 100%.

 

Right. In the case of Max Baer, there was a consensus among his opponents that he was the hardest puncher of the middle of the century. Louis and Braddock said he hit them the hardest, and Louis of course closed out his career against Marciano.

Everybody who got hit by Jeffries described him as the hardest puncher, as was also apparently the case with Dempsey.

This also appears to apply to everybody who remembers being hit by Shavers. (Jimmy Ellis is supposed to have claimed that he wasn't impressed, but I doubt he had any recall of what hit him.)

SRR kayo Fullmer with the "perfect" hook, but while that was obviously the hardest punch he'd ever been hit by, he has no recollection of it. What Gene knows about it comes from the footage taken.

Did common opponents of Ingo and Liston address this issue? Ingo bombed out Machen in one, then Eddie went 12 with Liston, and into the tenth with a youthful Frazier. Of course Sonny would have beaten Ingo, but was Ingo the hardest puncher of the late 1950's? Pehaps it was Cleveland Williams for that era. Ali wouldn't be able to compare his power to Shavers, because Williams never connected solidly.

While Holmes has made it clear that Shavers hit him the hardest, he's also stated at times that Cooney never really nailed him. (Too slow.) Foreman's the guy who withstood Gerry's best shot.

For Jimmy Ellis to claim being unimpressed by Earnie's power might be sour grapes. For Archie Moore to say Yvon Durelle hit him the hardest might simply be a case of The Fisherman catching lightning in a bottle. A consensus one way or the other is harder to disregard. In the case of an older Foreman, Tyson, Lennox and Tua, they do have common opponents between them. What's the majority opinion among them all?

An awful lot of people talk about Tyson's power, but it doesn't seem as though a significant amount of this praise is coming from his opponents.

When Leroy Caldwell, Ali, Norton and Holmes all say that Shavers him them the hardest, how can that be readily dismissed as hyperbole?