Did anyone in history punch harder than David Tua ?

Must have had a beard too, because Tua couldnt dent it

 

Punch for punch, there is no way Wlad hits harder. Wlad may be a more effective puncher over an entire fight or more artful in his selection and combination of punches but not harder. Also, I don't think Big George threw harder, more concussive punches. His were thudding punches that sapped his opponents strength, crushing them. However, how many one punch KO's did he really have against top opposition? Shavers, sure. There's definitely an argument there. Tyson, though extremely powerful, relied a lot on hand speed and great combinations. I'm not sure I would take him over Tua in the one punch power department.

 

Sam Langford.

 

Yes. George Foreman, Earnie Shavers, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and perhaps Ron Lyle, threw harder punches than Tua.

 

Cooney had a fearsome left hook.

 

Ron Lyle? Really? He wasn't even that hard a puncher. People think because he was decent sized and went life and death with Foreman that he could punch. Who is the best fighter he ever KO'd? Shavers, a guy with notoriously bad stamina and questionable chin. After that, is Boone Kirkman? I don't even rate Lyle any more than an average puncher.

 

Gotta say that's the best description of Foreman's punches I have read.

 

I dont think Foreman hit harder than Tua.
Tua often knocked men unconscious, Foreman usually clubbed them groggy.

 

true.

 

He was a terrific puncher. George Foreman said no one ever hit him harder than Lyle in his entire career. Not Frazier, not Norton, not Cooney, not Morrison, no one.

Lyle started his career at a very late age and was a flawed fighter to boot. This all added to his career deficencies. However he was a terrific puncher.

 

Yeah, I think Lyle hit hard.
He knocked a lot of guys out within 2 or 3 rounds, not great fighters or anything, but several solid journeyman or experienced fighters who you'd expect to last a bit longer against an "average" puncher. Beating men so quickly usually indicates a big punch.
He hammered Foreman about a bit as well.

 

Meanwhile Tua KO'd three future or past heavyweight champions, two completely out cold and "get the stretcher" in the first round. And he dramatically KO'd many top level journeymen. There is no comparison with Lyle. Seriously, Lyle really never KO'd anyone of note outside of the fragile Shavers.

 

I got a couple of quotes here:

Jack Johnson once said, "Jeffries had a solid wallop and Fitz[simmons] could knock your head off but that man Choynski could paralyze you even when he didn't catch you flush. In my opinion, he was the hardest hitter, pound for pound, of the last 50 years ... I think his left

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was much more effective than either Dempsey's or Louis's."

Jeffries said "he hit me so hard he broke my nose and wedged my lip between my teeth. He drove my head so far back I thought my neck stretched a foot."

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In an interview with Nat Fleischer in 1950, "Jeffries told of one of the hardest punches he ever took. He said it came in the tenth round of his fight with Choynski and was a right smash to the mouth. It drove his upper lip between the two front teeth and so bothered was he by the injury that he had his seconds cut away a piece of the lip to release it."

DeWitt Van Court wrote "It was Joe Choynski who hit Jim Jeffries the hardest blow he ever received."

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I can't seem to find the quote where Corbett says he hit harder then Fitz but I know I read it somewhere.

 

I think Tua hit harder.
I think Tua hits as hard as (or harder than) anyone in history.
But I wouldn't call Lyle average.

 

Minotauro: I am in agreement that Choynsky was a terrific hitter. Funny, if you like Joe you should be in awe of Sullivan for Joe said that Sullivan was a MUCH bigger hitter than he was. Pretty interesting.