How Powerful Was Max Baer?

True, true, true, true and TRUE.

 

Ha ha never heard of it . Is this what kids on the street are saying now?

 

It's been around for years now mate. It's often a response to something that is utter rubbish. Today years old = finding out today.

Say someone claims 60's Ali hits with similar power to Jimmy Young and Floyd Patterson.

It's silly to bracket those three because Blind Freddy knows Jimmy Young is one of the lighter punching quality heavyweights that ever fought. Ali is on another level, well more than one really. Young barely stopped anyone in his life. First career Ali pumped heaps of people and anyone with common sense knows it's not just down to class.

Patterson actually hit with a lot of power and would be above 60's Ali to the vast majority.

 

Baer certainly had power in the right hand - but it’s somewhat bemusing that it took Baer so long to stop a still well conscious Primo.

Notwithstanding the skill factor against Baer - he certainly still clocked Primo flush a number of times during the fight. Carnera also had an injured ankle (caused by a knockdown?) which would’ve lent itself to at least some of the knockdowns thereafter.

Whatever attributes you calculate to have contributed to the final impact - Louis’ shots on Carnera looked that much more powerful imo.

In both fights Carnera was extremely courageous - and he should be held in high regard just for that fact alone.

 

Patterson wasn't a weak puncher. Frazier, Louis, and Bowe were not average punchers. The rating system here is off.

 

I know Ali was cruising at less than full speed against Floyd in their 72 - but boy, I do believe several of Floyd’s searing power combos got Ali’s attention which might’ve influenced Ali to switch gears and put the pedal to the metal.

Quite the performance from Floyd who, at age 37, was still ridiculously fast, powerful and as fit as a fiddle.

 

The weirdest one there is calling Patterson weak. He was a huge puncher P4P (considering he was a natural LHW), and on a HW scale was probably still a 7/10. That leaping left hook he threw was deadly.

 

Oh for sure. It was extremely predictable and expected.

 

I've read all the posts on this thread so far and find no mention of Baer's kayo of Schmeling. To me, that is a far better example of Baer's power than the Carnera fight. Baer threw some bombs. I'm not saying that the Schmeling fight makes him the best puncher of all time. No way. But when talking about Baer's power that kayo should be at the top of the list to consider, especially since we have a film of basically the entire fight.

 

Anyone that knows anything about Patterson and 60's/70's boxing in general knows Patterson is a hard puncher.....and not only for his size. It's history 101.

 

Actually, I hold the "winding up" against him. I think it made him less effective because he tended to telegraph his punches to get his power. On the other hand, Schmeling couldn't seem to get out of the way, and he was a pretty good boxer.!? Go figure! I must be missing something!

 

Solid post. Baer's one of many many hard hitters for me and i don't auto bracket him in the top echelon personally.

 

I don't know if I can look past Bruno and Wlad outclassing far more powerful fighters like Louis and Frazier. Even after your explanation of the scaling it still doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter who had more raw power, a punch is a punch. Gloves become moot when we compare resumes, anecdotes, and the film itself between guys like Bruno to Louis and see which one looks like they're hurting the opponent more.

 

I think he underrates many because these guys besides having top skills, generally part of their package is above average-superb power.
With exceptions like cuties, & the great Usyk today.

However I do agree that guys like Wlad & Bruno were above Frazier & even Louis.
Impact is part of it-& Frazier was a hard hitter but also a high volume, attrition puncher.
But when effect is in part blinding combinations-so guys cannot well or at all prepare for shots, OR many come in a short time...

That is effectiveness-& it tends to oversell what is being postulated here, raw power.
Like if guys were hit the exact same way, place & number of times by each man.

 

In order to hit your opponent, you also need to be able to land your power punches flush, Louis was better at that than Bruno. It also helped his case that he was facing stiffs that stood there like idiots.
Bruno had trouble tagging a moving target, but he had great power.
Bruno, Tyson, Ruddock, Foreman and Eubank all had their punches measured in London in 1991 on a machine. Bruno hit the hardest.
As for gloves, they don't become moot at all. The smaller the glove, thus the less padding, means the punch does more damage.