Hardest Heavyweight Puncher?

Big George Foreman

 

Hang on second my good man. I'm not getting sucked into anything. I admit I was rather harsh about what I said about Tyson not being in the top 30 and I retracted that. I don't think I ever said at any time that Tyson didn't have good power. Please point out where I said this. What I did say was that there are several fighters who are bigger single shot punchers. Tyson did seem to punch harder as he matured though and when he stopped using the things that made him so dynamite in the late 1980's, namely his speed, head movement and combination punching as well as his power.

Anyway friend this thread isn't asking who was the best HW puncher of all time, it's asking who was the hardest. There is a difference. And Tyson isn't the best HW puncher anyway as that honour goes to Joe Louis.

 

Louis<marciano<dempsey<baer<frazier<lewis<Foreman>tyson<liston<johanasen<schmeling,Walcott:smoke

 

The most important fighters for this thread have been mentioned (Foreman, Shavers, Tyson etc.). Perhaps we should remember of some lesser known fighters of the seventies. For example MacFoster and Al "Blue" Lewis. They had a reputation as hard hitters, too.

 

Jolting Jim Corbett!

 

I agree with those who say Shavers. Whatever he had just wasnt natural.

I think the hardest puncher among the heavyweight champions is probably Max Baer.

 

I think that your namesake deserves a mention in this thread.

 

Maybe Shavers,but the best puncher was Louis,others are Liston,Foreman,Baer,Dempsey,and Marciano,second tier Tyson,Ingo ,Lewis,Marciano.ClevelandWilliams may be on a par with Shavers ,but of the Champs Louis is the best if not the hardest puncher,imo.

 

Later on his career Tyson became more of a one punch bomber, as demonstrated by the Botha KO, but before his strengths were combination punching, handspeed and power. I mean I don't see how you can say I don't have him up there when he is top 20 IMO for raw one punch power, perhaps higher as he matured. I would go as far to say that the 1988 Tyson was one of the best P4P punchers ever, nm just in the heavies. But IMO I think Louis is a greater all-round puncher. That's hardly a slight to Tyson.

 

Great information! Thanks, Sam. I was torn between choosing Foreman or Shavers...but now I have read multiple boxers who fought both men say that Shavers was noticably a bigger hitter; Shavers is the obvious choice.

The question then becomes why wasn't Shavers as dominant as Foreman...and I guess the answer is that his preternatural punching power was not always enough to compensate for other deficiencies as a boxer. Although Georges technique was limited, it had to be better than Earnies.

A combination of speed, accuracy and combination punching trumps single punch power. Earnie finds it harder to land his haymaker than Dempsey, Louis or Tyson.

 

This is precisely why Joe Louis was ranked tops in this respect by Ring Magazine. But for one punch power, I haven't yet read a convincing argument for anybody punching harder than Shavers.

In the early 1950's, Gene Tunny offered his subjective list of the three hardest punches of the previous 50 years:

3) The kayo right Joe Louis dethroned Jimmy Braddock with. (In point of fact, Louis himself considered the right uppercut he floored Paulino Uzcudun with as the hardest punch he landed in his career. Referee Arthur Donovan agreed, saying it was the hardest punch he'd ever witnessed as well. Although Paulino was back on his feet at seven, there was no question of Donovan allowing the match to continue. Louis freaked out over how Uzcudun was able to beat Donovan's count. Joe simply couldn't believe it, and never stopped marveling at Uzcudun's heart and toughness.)

2) Max Baer's first knockdown of Primo Carnera. Braddock, Schmeling, Uzcudun, Carnera, and Louis, all claimed at one time or another, that Max Baer was the hardest puncher they ever faced. Like Earnie Shavers, Max's bombs were not usually well coordinated together with other punches, but for a single shot, he may have indeed been the hardest punching heavyweight champion.

1) Jack Dempsey's first knockdown punch against Jess Willard. This may be the hardest single punch ever recorded in motion during a championship match. Willard was retreating from a right-left-right-left combination, when the final hook, cloaked by Dempsey's preceding right to the chest, caved in Willard's cheekbone. Read what Dempsey wrote about the proper delivery of a left hook in Championship Fighting, then compare it to a frame-by-frame analysis on movie film of that intitial knockdown punch. If Jess had been stationary, or moving forward when it landed, he might have been killed. That Willard was already reacting to Dempsey's combination, instead of getting caught flatfooted, probably saved him from going down for the count.

In one twisting motion, Jack whirled his shoulders, torqued his hips, and pivoted left with his forward toe in perfectly timed synchronicity. As his left launched up from the floor, propelled through his toes, and over the top, he squeezed his fist at the moment of impact, his entire body orchestrated into a single leveraged instant. Marciano had Walcott against the ropes, and SRR had Gene Fullmer open and coming towards Ray, when Robby stepped aside to deliver his legendary kayo hook. Arguello's left hook kayo in the San Remo return match with Escalera was not the result of leveraged power, but pinpoint placement.

With Willard being so tough, and so much larger than Dempsey, I suspect Tunney may have been right in declaring that hook to possibly be the hardest punch ever captured in championship footage. The camera angle may not have been optimal, but Dempsey's positioning is impeccable.

True one punch knockouts are not all that common in boxing. Frequently, a victim is caught cold early. Other times, fatigue may set the target up for the coup de grace. Louis, Baer, and Dempsey, did not succeed in dropping their hapless opponents for the count with their legendary bombs on Uzcudun, Carnera, and Willard. For a single punch to truly drop a world class opponent for the count of ten is a rare event to marvel at. Appreciate it when you see it.

 

Nobody has presented any reasons why Shavers was a harder hitter than Tua. For my money, Tua's left hook is definitely harder than any other heavyweight punch I've seen on film, including several Shavers fights and a mixed video of his KOs.

 

Bob Fitzsimmons is the hardest hitter ever, period.

He killed 3 men as a result of his fists, twice destroyed super tough Tom Sharkey, and sunk Corbett with one blow.

Had Fitzsimmons been at his best when he fought Jeffries, who had the toughest beard ever at HW, you may have seen a different result.

 

foreman