highest psi scores from HW boxers

What sophisticate, erudite sources! Congrats!

This PSI heresay is all bull****.

But thanks for taking it seriously.

 

Yeah i remember that, to be fair holyfield barely threw the shot at all with none of his body behind it while the other guy hit the machine like he'd just seen it sleeping with his wife

If holyfield had tried he would have hit the thing with 4 or 5 times harder

 

There was a show on one of the cable channels recently think it fight science or one of the martial arts shows. They did PSI Tests with martial artists and I think some boxers. They tested on crash dummies

 

True, Holyfield's punch was way more economical and he could keep throwing that for 12 rounds unlike the other guy, but it was not an arm punch either.

 

that is some very convincing points,

there are so many things to consider both with the person, machine and setting.

what if they boxer wasent able to warm up before he hit the machine?

what if he trying to use text book technique without emphasising on loading up?

i remember when ray mercer whispered in jesse fergusen's ear "i just dont go it today" in his losing fight and im sure that doesnt stray far from you best shot on a psi meter.

where as a fighter's greatness is judged by his entire career, i dont think it would be fair to judge his punch by one day on the psi machine.

 

Even if the tests work they would only measure how hard the fighter hits the machine, that's not the same as hitting a man in the ring with his best punch. It's completely different.

Javelin throwers throw that spear pretty far, but put them in the Kalahari desert and let them chase gazelles and compete with spear-toting rivals and their skills will be weak.

A guy like Sonny Liston wants to knock a man's head-off, or pound the heavy bag until the chain breaks, he's not too fuss about "computer game" scores.

 

Since the time of this thread, I have been able to verify the test involving Fitzsimmons, Jeffries and McVea.

 

Cool! What is the source?

Also, do you have links to any of the other ones you mentioned in the original post, and/or full citations?

 

I will expand when I am sober enough/have the leisure time to do so.

 

I managed to find the full text of the Frank Bruno article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1419171/

 

The source for the test involving Bob Fitzsimmons, Jim Jeffries, and Sam McVea is cited in Adam Pollack's first biography of Jack Johnson. The original article was in the Oxnard Courier of March 29 1902, the claim latter being repeated in October and November of the same year.

Bob Fitzsimmons 1070lbs
Jim Jeffries 1100lbs
Sam McVea 1270lbs, and he apparently did it more than once.

 

I am going to say right now, that I am not a fan of comparing punch tests from different eras, using different equipment.

It is not entirely clear that force is being measured in the same way.

However I will indulge you.

The test at Loughborough University, measured Frank Bruno's power at 921lbs, but estimated that the actual impact on the target might have been 1422lbs.

Even if we accepted the higher figure, that would suggest that Sam McVea's power, was in the same general ballpark as Frank Bruno's.

This would make the three fighters in the 1902 study look very formidable indeed.

 

They could always track down the actual machines, rebuild them, and ask modern fighters to punch them.

 

I am certain that they could have made an accurate punch measuring machine in 1902.

By that I men that it might have been 1-3% out, but it is not realistic to think that it would be 10% out.

The problem is, that it is not clear that they were measuring force in the same way.

Every scientist who tackles this problem, seems to reinvent the wheel!