I'm now convinced that Tua hit harder than Foreman!

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Yet at the age of 40+, after taking 10 years off and gaining shitload of excess weight, he was still putting guys to sleep.

So you think " its telling" that because in his 27th pro fight he couldn't land on a 10-1 nobody and finally got him out in the 11th that he was an all time great puncher on par with George Foreman?

I'm having a difficult time comprehending that one Russell.

 

Hence why I specified his knockout consistency in his first career. First.

Foreman never failed to get a bum out of there?

If you want to reference his comeback, he couldn't even get Rocky Serkoski off his feet after landing in the neighborhood of 50 flush power shots on him.

Same thing vs. a blown up, overweight lightheavy in Qawi.

Foreman NEVER stopped everyone, and the same thing applies to Tua.

 

You are absolutely right. It's a fact that none of could ever know who really hit harder. However, my conclusions are based on universal opinions that I've heard from trainers and fighters alike.

Historically, Shavers is known by many to have the hardest right hand in the history of the heavyweight division, with Foreman, Liston, Tyson and Lewis generally considered right behind. Shavers left hand is nowhere near the quality of his right which makes Foreman the hardest puncher overall IMO. Foreman's power was almost equal in both fists but his left was not as hard as his right, but much stronger than Shavers' left.

Liston was also known to have tremendous power in both fists. When a fighter has a reputation for knocking down people with a hard jab, that speaks volumes about punching power. Tyson was quicker than all the above mentioned but he didn't have the overall bodyweight-punch power combination that Foreman and Liston had. Statistically, the knockout ratio is somewhat accurate but word of mouth from trainers and other fighters that have faced the puncher is the main factor that usually determines who hits the hardest.

 

I've seen Holmes knock down multiple fighters with a jab.

I don't know. I WANT to believe that Liston had unbelievable power, but I'm a little skeptical.

Who did he ever stop that had an iron chin?

Floyd was done against everyone from amateurs being thrown into their first pro fight to Quarry. An impressive destruction of a great fighter, but a weak chinned, intimidated one.

Machen went the distance, and Ingo stopped him in one.

 

I think stopping 68 opponents in 76 wins with about 5 of his decisions coming post age 40 is pretty damn impressive. I really don't care what people say about his competition. He knocked the livin' **** out of plenty of guys who could take shots.

 

Yeah, but even that can be picked at.

"He knocked Norton out in two!"

"Shavers knocked him out in half a round!"

 

You call this picking apart?

Foreman Ko'd Norton in 1974, when Ken was likely at his peak. Shavers knocked out Norton 5 YEARS LATER when Norton was obviously past it. Plus, Earnie Shavers is about the only man that most people go back and forth on with Foreman as being the #1 biggest hitter of all time. I fail to see the relevance of this comparison.

 

Savage as his style may be, for some reason or another, George always managed to land. Even the men who beat him all said that he hit terribly hard. Muhammad Ali made fun of him in their press conference before the fight. He said Goerge was like a swinging mummy who threw looping punches that anyone could duck. Well, Muhammad sure found out that the mummy wasn't so easy to avoid, and wound up taking one hell of a beating before Foreman tired in the 8th.

In 81 pro fights, there was absolutely no one and I mean no one, who didn't feel the sting of George's shots. Jimmy Young-One of the most elusive and hard to hit fighters of all time even said, that George had him out on his feet. If that doesn't say something about George's ability to land than I don't know what does.

 

the thing with Foreman was he made great fighters in Frazier and Norton look like bums very few fighters could have done this and don't tell me Liston, Frazier had a much better chin than Patterson. Tua though is capable of doing the same thing look at the way he smashed Ruiz and Moorer, both gave Holyfield great fights.

 

Names please, i'll start proceedings with Jaws Ocasio and leave the other two or more to you.

 

There's no doubt Tua's left hook carried awesome force. He may have knocked out mostly journeymen / tomato cans, but they way he knocked them out was impressive.
I don't think anyone else can boast knocking out two former champions out inside a minute, combined. That's pretty darn impressive.

So for me, purely from a power perspective, I think Tua demands respect, and in all honesty should be classified as one of the best punchers in the division's history.

There have been better punchers overall, but few have hit harder with just one punch. I'd give Foreman the nod over Tua though, because George had huge power in both hands, and carried power in his hooks, swings, uppercuts...the lot.
Tua had the hook, but his right hand was not nearly as deadly.

 

Tue has faster hands, more snap on his punches and catches people cleaner. Foreman didn't punch correctly half the time and still wobbled folks. Foreman is stronger and has more one-punch power, but on average, Tua hit harder blow-for-blow because Foreman didn't always use proper leverage, but Foreman's strength is a good two tiers above him, resulting in clubbing power that was far more dangerous.

Foreman didn't need to connect flush to hurt you.

 

Foreman had heavy hands, but he almost never scored one-punch knockdowns or knockouts. It's foolish to think he had more one-punch power than Tua. There were actually plenty of heavyweights in history who had more one-punch power than George.

 

One punch power? Yes, I agree that men like Tua, Tyson and Shavers had more power in a single punch than Foreman did, but when it came to overall power in both hands and the ability to maintain that force consistantly throughout a fight, none of them match George. I think he was also physically stronget than any of the above mentioned names.

 

A lot more than the three names you listed. Some people think younger Foreman was more damaging with one-punch power, but there's no evidence to back up this belief. All I've seen, young Foreman didn't score a single one-punch KO, the closest coming vs Gullick, where he hit him with two left hooks-uppercuts to the jaw and Gullick didn't rise in time. During his comeback, he scored a few more (Mark Young, Adilson Rodrigues and Michael Moorer). He was too slow and inaccurate with his punches to generate enough one-punch power, he's inferior to tens of heavyweights in this regard.