Ive long been here during debates that ali was a light puncher..And Ali didnt have any pop..He obviously wasnt a one and your out fighter..I think he had about 7..above average..What do you guys think
Its underrated, he seriously wasn't feather fisted, certainly in his prime where he was more athletic/explosive. When ALi sits on his shots they can do serious damage. Foreman was ko'd and not Holyfield/Frazier/Lyle managed that. The Liston stoppage was supposedly a dive, well Liston continued and Walcot stopped it incorrectly. But the shot that put Liston down was a temple shot and being hit there can put you on ***** street. The Williams fight was brutal, Williams may have been past prime but was pasted Remember Ali didnt attempt to put full power into his shots most the time, he aimed to hit and not be hit, power was an after thought. If you get careless though he could punnish you. Also sometimes he looked to punnish his man instead of going for the KO
Patterson and Cooper both said he was probably the weakest puncher they ever fought- and Cooper fought Karl Mildenberger.
To get a good picture of Ali's power we should look at the times he really put all his power in his punches, which he seldom did. KO - Williams: One of the premier exhibitions of offensive punching in HW history. Even though Williams was damaged goods there's no doubt about the power and accuracy in those punches and combinations. KO - Bonavena: That left hook was really hard. Yes, it was in the last round, but Bonavena was one tough customer and that hook led to the first (and only?) KO defeat in his career. Something Frazier's left hook hadn't come close to acccomplish over 20 rounds. KO - Foreman: We all know about that right hand. Yes, Foreman was exhausted, but he was exhausted at other times as well without being KO'd. He faced some serious bangers in his time, but never was KO'd before or after. KO-Lyle: An equally deadly right hand. The guy who stood up to the best Shavers's had to offer was sent into ***** street by one single right. That's hardly feather fisted. Along with many of the modern superheavy monsters I would say that ATG's like Tyson, Lewis, Liston and Foreman clearly had better power, but not too many else. I think his power (when he really went all out) was a lot closer to other ATG's like Dempsey, Louis, Marciano and Frazier than many think. At his best he was after all 212 well proportioned pounds with possibly the fastest hands of all HW's.
Well, most of the modern superheavies was of course clearly more powerful.Bowe, Brigg, Tua, Morrison etc, but it's not as many as people seem to believe.
My point was that it's hardly realistic to believe that smalller guys with slower hand was a lot more powerful.
You can easily look at Holyfield and say "Oh, he knocked Bowe down and Tyson and Mercer" but in reality we know he wasn't one of the bigger hitters. Same with Ali.
Yeah, they weren't among the elit in terms of power, definitely not. But they both had respectable power. I think Holyfield would be be viewed as a good puncher in an era with smaller HW's. Anytime before the 1980's, really.
Sometimes an accurate shot on the button can have devestating effects. I think Ali got a lot of his stoppages through accuracy more than power. And he'd usually have been swatting the other guy for round after round before that.
Truth is at heavyweight, anyone can hit. All things considered, Ali was not a big puncher at all, but due to his speed, stamina and in general overwhelming of his opponents, he still stopped a lot of them when he was in his prime - about as many as Tyson did. Even Chris Byrd hurt Tua with bodyshots and Young dropped Foreman. Both are known to be featherfisted, i.e. only punch to score points, not to do damage. I'd give Ali a 6 or 6.5 for power, but on stopping ability, he'd be an 8 or more.
Ali's accuracy probably gets overlooked more than his power does. IMO he was a decent puncher, thats about it. He was very consistent at hitting the target from long and mid-range. He could land punches with 'eye of a needle' like precision. Extremely adept at hitting his opponent on a regular basis.
Ali's power is definitely underrated. He wasn't a huge puncher, obviously, but he could pack fair power into his punches when he wanted to. I think the issue with Ali, in terms of punching power, is that he deliberately avoided packing power into his blows. He liked to keep his punches fast and light. When he chose to, however, Ali could hit with a bit of authority.