How do you rank Shannon Briggs as a puncher?

Very high for his era historically not so much.

 

7.5

 

For raw power? 9

For effectiveness at landing his hardest shots on world class boxers during his prime? 6

Combined balance? Bolo's 7.5 seems fair

 

As hard as anyone Louis, Foreman, Liston, Lewis etc and proof it doesn’t matter that much.

 

If Tua is 10, and given Tua's ranking in this vote:
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/mount-rushmore-of-hw-punchers.709690/
...then I would agree with:

 

agree with the consensus, great power puncher with weaknesses that limited it's effectiveness.

 

7 he never stopped anyone of note.

 

9/10, maybe.

I mean, the early blitzes of over-matched opponents aren't going to impress anyone on the forum as far as boxing accomplishments, but I feel it should impress upon people that he is, best punch for best punch, a huge hitter, regardless of his ability to make it count against his best opponents. The guy could really bang. Against a punching bag, nine or ten, I have no problem rating him, in raw power. The problem with these threads is somebody will then come in and rate them "functionally" as in not what is just the natural attribute but what includes every other attribute of skill and ability to land that raw power on somebody who is meaningful. The standards for this are so different and if we don't specify, it really might hurt the thread in a sense. His power is real.

He was a very good, inconsistent athlete and not one of the better thinkers of his peers, in terms of figuring a guy out who gave him problems and making adjustments to find the KO punch. He could be flustered and baffled by nature when in against somebody who was more on the sophisticated side or stylistically challenging side, and it probably badly affected his ability to get more meaningful knockouts that were reflective of how very hard he hit. You give him Holyfield's boxing brain, and keep his power where it is, and you'll likely see a sizable list of some pretty significant names getting scraped off the canvas.

 

Yeah, I remember a lot of commentators who had issues with being British and you hate to see it but it's an inspiration that they soldiered on and were able to maintain meaningful work.

 

Well you’d have to disqualify Liston as a great puncher if that was your criteria.

 

I don’t know if I can assign a rating but I think he hit very hard.