Do Heavyweights punch harder today...

I agree with your most of your post and ive always thought that 210 or 220 were kind of the cut off range for huge punching heavys. What i mean by that is after that weight i dont think that the huge man always has the advantage in great punching power. Although i think Wlad,Vitali,and Lewis are hard puncher i think the guys you mentioned hit harder. However the great heavys of the past 180-200 lb range dont hit as hard as the bigger heavys.
One thing though that i clearly remember Holyfield saying that no one ever hit him harder than Riddick Bowe, never heard him say that about Foreman. Maybe he said that back then after their fight,which was before he fought Bowe. Not to say Bowe actually hit harder than Foreman(although maybe as hard as an old george) Just saying that he connected on Holy harder since he was the more fluid puncher than an older George he had more connects on him.
I also think it is evident just looking back at their fights that Bowe hurt Holy more serious and more often than Big George did.

 

I think that it is more likely than not that on a whole, todays punchers have more strength and power than the smaller older punchers. I think that the massive hitters like say Dempsey are probably about on par with say a Tua or a Tyson.

BUt common sense suggests that since such a large portion of todays training methods are about improving strength and power, this part of a fighter is what will be improved more. Particularly when guys are big to start with. If todays fighters trained for stamina or speed predominantly (and more so than the older fighters) then it would stand to reason that they would be faster and fitter on the whole.

 

It seems from the little oldtime stuff I know that heavyweights got beaten up and bloodied more, and bones broken (in Willard's case) , whereas the 1-punch KOs where not as correspondingly high, if thats true (big IF) then that suggests to me thats its because the gloves werent as well-padded as today.

Not trying to get too gory or anything but just curious because you see the fearsome punching Dempsey break bones on Willard but he just keeps getting up, whereas its hard to see anyone getting up from the likes of a perfect Lewis right-hand or Tua left-hook.

 

great points mate but your wrong about holyfiled. he never gained any bulk. he gained pure muslce without his body composition changing

your right about a lot of these guys being pure juiced up or just fat *******s

 

I think the more reasonable task would be to name the lightest good to great KO artists in the heavyweight division today.

 

No, he said it on Foreman's ESPN Ringside. It was an archive clip with him bald and seeming to be pretty recent (I would said around 2004).

He wasn't hurt most by Foreman. Bowe clearly hurt him more. But he said the hardest punch he had ever been hit with was from Foreman. He said something like, "He had a lot of power. He hit me with the hardest punch I've ever got hit with. It didn't knock me down, but it stunned me."

Bowe obviously didn't have no where near the punching power of Foreman, so this makes sense.

Since you agree with me regarding the 210-220 pounders. To me, it shows that the 180+ pound guys power aren't fabled.

 

Gaining pure muscle is still bulking...

 

Probably the NBA/NFL.

 

Or Prison! A great athelete doesnt always make a great fighter. Lots of good fighters get lost to the streets and prisons.

 

Exactly, where are the 190lb NBA players with a boxer's build? Might be a fair few in NFL or college football though.
A few baseballers might be athletic enough too, they obviously all seem to have the coordination and shoulder power

 

Dont want to get off the subject here but Iverson has always struck me as a guy with a boxers built, great speed,tenacity,and not a team player which means he might have liked boxing. He would probably have been a MW to LH though.

But anyways i feel there are alot more potential champs in the prison system or gangs than there is in pro sports.

 

Allot of steroids going on in the shot put from the 70s-80s that they cant get away with today due to better testing

 

No, they would not. Small gloves do not mean better one punch power. Quite the opposite. With smaller gloves punches to the head get less damaging while punches to the torso get more damaging. That´s why the bareknuckle and early gloved boxers fought mostly with low guards. Small gloves do more damage in terms of cuts and broken bones - noses, cheekbones and fingers/hands - but not in term of one punch KOs. If anything one punch KOs should have increased with more padding since it adds more weight to the gloves- also I suppose there are diminishing returns.

On the subject:
Yeah, I think weight does play its part when it comes to punching power- if someone can deliver it. But I think there are diminishing returns. I think it starts around 180 pounds were weight get´s less and less important and then from around 210/220 pounds more weight doesn´t help your punching power anymore.