in the 70s if we were to rank top 3 hardest punchers

Lyle gets a lot of credit for knocking down and repeatedly hurting the fairly durable Foreman.

 

I’ve always been perplexed as to how Foster got the number one spot without beating a single top tenner.

 

Bad Bennie.......

 

Lyle is strong but thats about it. Not much on the skill side and it showed why he couldn't beat anyone at the top. Still, how he managed to knockdown Foreman is beyond me. Some of the roughest hitters of the 90's took on old fat Foreman and despite nailing him with dozens of hits to the face, he never once dropped. Lyle dropped a young/prime Foreman with much fewer shots.

 

Cyclone Hart, Zamora, Olivares, Danny Lopez was a great shout......Zarate. Arguello.

There's more to life than heavies.

 

Gomez, Cuevas, Bob Foster, Saad are all appropriate answers, too, I think.

 

My opinion on The Top Three Hardest Punchers in the 70's

1. George Foreman.
2. Sonny Liston, still fighting in 1970.
3. Joe Frazier.

Honorable Mention: Ernie Shavers, for one punch power.

 

I think the one advantage that old fat Foreman had was more durability, he was bigger than his younger self. Especially after Alex Stewart rearranged his face, and George didn't go down. Qawi also landed some big shots on him, and Foreman just took them flush and kept coming at him.

 

Freakin' MAC Foster has been name dropped more times on this thread than BOB Foster. Very heavyweight-centric, this forum...

 

I think the OP intended this to only be about HWs. The question wasn’t qualified to be P4P.

So, by default, it’s about absolute hardest punchers and that’s going to be HWs in any era.

Not saying sparring counts but just as background info (and that’s if it’s even true) didn’t Mac Foster claim to have knocked Liston out in sparring - or least claimed to have put Sonny down?

Quarry’s KO of Foster in 1970 appears to be one of Jerry’s best efforts. Foster shook Jerry a bit but nothing major - but even to shake Quarry was no mean feat and not often seen.

 

Foreman said Lyle hit him the hardest out of everyone he fought, although if he didn’t finish off Frazier and Norton so early he might’ve had a different opinion.

 

Weaver or Lyle , two monster underated punchers. Coetzee solid but overrated

 

Cooney had 22 of his 25 pre Holmes fights in the 70's. In his next three fights he cut up Jimmy young and poleaxed an old Lyle and Norton.

His power was established by the turn of 1980 IMO. He's as deep in the mix as anyone. Liston was ranked a couple of years in the 70's.

 

Young Foreman also got knocked over by Ali an Young. No one then thought that Foreman had a great chin until he stood up to Holyfield in the 90s. It’s like in terms of durability young Foreman an old Foreman were two different animals.