Do Heavyweights punch harder today...

No doubt Roid gets the job done.

 

Opposite really. Guys like Evander Holyfield and Roy Jones liked to use Grant gloves because of the extra padding around the hand that allowed them to soften blows and block punches. Mayweather uses Winning gloves because of his brittle hands.
Reyes are considered punchers gloves
Winning, Everlast, and Grant all have more padding than Reyes, although the overall weight is the same.

 

Yes but not always as I said. LEnnox Lewis loved the Reyes gloves because he didnt block punches and liked to get the most of his power. I believe he made Tyson wear them in their fight. Tyson preferred Everlast which was less of a punchers glove.

 

It is pretty obvious to me that, let's say, David Tua has more punching power than Marciano or Dempsey. He has super strong legs and throws his whole 230-240 pounds into his punches, which results in perfect leverage. If Tua had hit Willard as often as Dempsey did, he would be dead.

 

Yeah I think it was more of a psychological thing because Tyson always wore Everlast through his entire career, plus he definitely used his gloves more as a blocking tool more in his comeback career as opposed to head movement.
Heres a little write up on comparing the two

Differences Between Boxing Gloves



For example, Cleto Reyes boxing gloves are known as punchers’ gloves. They are small and compact, and more of the weight is distributed to the wrist as opposed to over the hand. The result is what many people believe is a harder, more dangerous punch. Fighter’s known for their punching power may use Cleto Reyes boxing gloves to exploit their advantage even more. Conversely, fighters without much power may turn to a pair of Cleto Reyes professional fighting gloves to try to improve or eliminate their weakness.
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On the far end of the spectrum from Cleto Reyes are Grant boxing gloves. Grant boxing gloves appear larger and cushier than most other models and brands. More of the weight is placed into the hand as opposed to the wrist, offering increased protection of a fighter’s hands. Fighters who have been known to break their hands often or who are trying to prevent that from happening love Grant gloves for the added protection. Additionally, due to their fluffier shape, Grant gloves can be a defensive tool, helping a fighter to block and deflect more of his opponent’s shots.
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Differences between boxing gloves are not always as easy to spot. As mentioned, Cleto Reyes and Grant are on the complete opposite sides of the equation. In the middle, you’ll find brands such as Everlast, Title, Ringside and TKO that provide well rounded gloves that are used by many different fighters and fighting styles.

 

Well, well, well, please read again what I wrote! Of course smaller or no gloves will do more damage to both the opponents face and your own hand. It will hurt more and you are more likely to hurt yourself. But a KO is more likely to happen with bigger gloves than smaller ones - although there are some diminishing returns it seems, when he size of the gloves take away too much speed for example.

 

Sorry, to many variables to consider your personal experience over a controlled experiment. It is true that smaller gloves of yesterday did inflict more facial injuries.

 

What experiment is this? That shows that more padding somehow increases the force? This seems not only physically impossible to me, but it contradicts my own experience as well as what I've seen.

I repeat, the blows have much more effect in UFC with their small gloves, even though they punch with less leverage and power than boxers due to inferior technique.

Pro boxers having a go at each other with those gloves...

 

As for the thread, HWs do punch harder today on average. I don't think that Marciano or Louis was up there with Lewis, Tyson, Ruddock etc for pure power. Many of the guys they fought would be LHWs with today's standards and very few would be HWs. Let Wlad loose in the LHW and CW division and his already staunch KO record would start to look something ridicolous.

 

I have little doubt that today's heavyweights hit harder than past ones. Guys today are much bigger than in the past and on the average bigger guys are going to hit harder. Welterweights hit harder than lightweights, middleweights harder than welterweights, and so on. So I don't know why that rule is going to stop when comparing heavyweights to cruiserweights(the division most past heavyweights would be at today).