Do Heavyweights punch harder today...

I agree 100% with this.

 

Some do ,some don't.

Valuev and Mcline for example are poor punchers ,per body mass.
Smaller men like Tua have considerably more power.
Guys like Dempsey Langford, Louis, Satterfield , back to Sullivan were naturally big hitters.
In a ring record book they rate the top 10 punchers, you have heavily muscled types and string bean bangers too, power has been theorized over and over, but no one has satisfactorily explained why some guys bang harder than others to me.

 

I have no doubt that the smaller gloves inflicted more severe facial injuries but they did not produce more kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is a fuction of mass and velocity and is only going to decrease with the introduction of a lighter glove. The impact of the blow upon the brain does not diminuish when you use a smaller glove.

Now under London Prize Ring rules quick knockouts were virtualy nonexistent. A lot of that was due top the fact that you needed to put your oponent down for 30 seconds but people were not exactly getting knocked cold.

 

Because from a certain point - in my oppinion it starts around 180 pounds and than drops even further at around 220 pounds - weight doesn't help your punching power anymore. With more weight you lose speed. Less speed, less kinetic energy, less power.

 

The kinetic energy cannot possible decrease since a glove, no matter how big, doesn't add any energy. It will be unchanged. But extra padding will lessen the amount of energy transmitted upon impact due to the friction when the padding contracts. It's like hitting someone who have thick clothes on to the body. Part of the energy of the blow will be absorbed by the padding of the clothes.

 

There are decreasing returns, but not non-existant returns over 180. Tyson had faster hands than Louis, but was 20 lbs heavier and stockier built. Hence, more power. Lewis and Wlad both have/had faster hands than many many fighters in the 180-200 range, but are of course much bigger. Their hands are not slower than Marciano's, rather the other way around, but they're much bigger, so how can they not hit harder?

 

Yes, I think the padding decreases the impact enough to make a difference. Also, bigger gloves means that the impact will be distributed over a larger area, thereby decreasing pressure per-square inch even more.

Gloves are in a way the opposite to brass knuckles. Brass knuckles decrease the "padding" that is given even by bones and they concentrate the impact to a smaller area.

 

I'm not sure, Dempsey was never much of a 1 punch KO guy whereas Marciano was. Marciano put the 6'4 Carmine Vingo into a coma with 1 punch, and took out the 6'1 Rex Layne with 1 punch, both were in the early stages of the fight.

 

Ask Joe Louis.

 

But what is so magical about 180? 180 would put you in the lightheavyweigt-cruiserweight range today. I doubt you would make the argument that a middleweight would hit harder than them, even though the middleweight would likely have more handspeed. People have no problem with bigger guys hitting harder than smaller guys in the lower divisions, not until it comes to past vs modern heavyweights do they take a different stance.

 

You can probably shake sombodys brain as much with a feather pillow as you can with a baseball bat.

 

There was a recent study on the force of bare knuckles, mma gloves, and boxing gloves. I will link to the video a littl e later if I have time.

Also, the subject of modern boxing gloves's supposed saftey has also been extensively researched beyond that:


From wikipedia:



Boxing gloves are cushioned [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glove"]gloves[/ame] that fighters wear on their hands during [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing"]boxing[/ame] matches. The term also refers to gloves used in training, though these often differ from competition gloves. Modern boxing gloves were developed to protect the hands of the striker during a bout (as opposed to the ancient [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cestus"]cestus[/ame], developed as a weapon), though specialised gloves are now available for competitions, sparring practice and other types of training. The use of modern boxing gloves typically results in fewer superficial facial injuries but greater brain damage to participants[url][1][/url][url][2][/url].

The impact of gloves on the injuries caused during a fight is a controversial issue. Most reputable studies[url][1][/url][url][2][/url] have shown that gloved fights cause more severe and more long-term brain and eye injuries than bare-knuckle fights, although the incidence of superficial injuries (cuts, bruising) is reducedThe impact of gloves on the injuries caused during a fight is a controversial issue. Most reputable studies[url][1][/url][url][2][/url] have shown that gloved fights cause more severe and more long-term brain and eye injuries than bare-knuckle fights, although the incidence of superficial injuries (cuts, bruising) is reduced