Does muscles have anything to do with how hard you punch?

Remember though, that a lot of the skinny guys being touted as big punchers were only so for their weightclass - they couldn't put on more muscle because it would move them to a higher weight with bigger guys who would be more difficult to fight/knock out. If you put on muscle the right way, there is little doubt it would help your punching power, but it might not help you boxing career because you'd come up against people naturally too big for you.

 

Yep.

This is why it's so important to have your legs behind the punch, and what I meant earlier by "support." The fisted glove is not a projectile, but the end of a larger mechanism.

A projectile does not impart all of its kinetic energy into the target. You know the standard law about "equal & opposite force." If you threw a gloved canteloup into a boxer's face, some of that energy would reflect back into the canteloup.

But a boxer's glove is not a canteloup. (and you can quote me on that!) It has support behind it to minimize the amount of force it absorbs, hence maximizing the amount of force entering the opponent's skull. Using better technique, such as having you legs behind the punch, or landing with only 75% extension, greatly adds to this support.

Class dismissed.