I'd say Wladimir hits harder than Lennox. It's close but when Wlad really tees off and unloads on his shots, you can hear and see the way he moves his opponents. Emanuel Steward said Wlad was the hardest puncher he trained. Freddie Roach also said Wlad was the hardest puncher he ever held the pads for.
Yes but his reputation hung on the fact that he had beaten Foreman, so it was in his interests to talk up Foreman.
I think you misunderstand the impact of some physical factors Sir. Weight & size is a big advantage-to a point. I recall reading about a fighter in a very light division-in Olympic boxing-who threw measurably harder than anyone in divisions up to 156 lbs. Did Foreman when he came back over 250 hit harder than young Foreman who sometimes fought in the 2 teens? I doubt it, he likely hit almost as hard. The additional weight probably did not fully compensate for the reduced speed. There is diminishing returns at best after a certain size. Sure the 6 1/2 feet 250 lb. guys cn hit amongst the hardest, as did Butterbean at nearly 1200 lbs. :toney And then the largest basketball, football, & powerlifting guys would hit somewhat harder. But leverage, speed, heavy handedness is impossible to predict or completely correlate with size. Shavers at ~ 210 may well have hit the hardest. Or it could be another guy. But just size & muscle does not prove anything. And some short guys w/short arms like Tua & Tyson can hit w/tremendous force. A Shavers & Liston had relatively huge hands, naturally big arms (different from pumped or PED infused) & hige fists. Tyson, Shavers & many moved folks across the ring, I see nothing unique there amongst the heaviest hitters. Also I have no reason to believe that Lewis was "naturally more explosive" than Shavers. And the guy who said I doubt Foreman was in the top 10 of lb. for lb. punchers was correct. Just like lighter lifters can move more proportionate to their body weight-even if you ignore the Super HW division who have incentive to have more fat since they have no weight to make & fat (to a certain point) though less efficent than muscle helps. Strength & punching power does not increase proportionately to size. There are many builds that can get to amongst the hardest hitters ever. Short limbs, very fat, long levers...Muscle & size helps, but little or not at all after a certain point. That is why a guy not that much over 200 MIGHT hit as hard or harder as guys 20% heavier. CW size, I do not think so.