Is Zhilei Zhang an ATG HW puncher?

Yeah he is.

 

Right now I'd say no, just because his reputation as a puncher is simply based on cracking one good chin in Joyce. He couldn't keep Hrgovic or Parker down despite hitting them cleanly. Joyce's chin was clearly overrated, it's damn good but not at the level it was advertised to be. We'd need to see Joyce's chin tested more against some of the other big punchers to gauge Zhang's power. For example if Joyce fights Joshua and eats every shot without flinching then yeah that would make Zhang's feat even more impressive, but if Joshua takes Joyce out early it would make Zhang's power seem on par with Joshua and nobody is saying Joshua is an ATG puncher.

Right now Zhang is a fighter who clearly hits hard, maybe the biggest puncher in the division but Joshua, Wilder and perhaps even Dubois have a claim to that too, nobody clearly stands above the other.

 

Joyce chin was not even Iron, but a granite one, truly top of the top ones. Zhang power is real and one the best for certain. His skills are solid as well, but he lacks cardio, mainly due to his advance age and size.

 

Considering that Joyce took a lot of massive shots from Parker and Dubois and was barely phased, Joyce's chin is not overrated, he does have one of the best chins ever. You cannot deny this.

Zhang seriously hurt Joyce, and has been the only one so far to seriously crack that chin.

Widler took some serious beatings in his time against Ortiz, Fury and Parker and managed to survive for a while.

Zhang cracked him with two decent shots.

Zhang's power is probably equivalent to prime Wilder, except he has it in both hands and can box. Unfortunately he waited until his late 30's to really do anything serious and goes AWOL after the 6-7th round.

 

In terms of punch-for-punch flush power on target, he is a huge hitter.

However he has severe stamina problems that prevent him from achieving the level of destruction that he ought to sow.

 

AJ hits just as hard as Zhang.

 

LOL he couldn't win a round against skilless bum Ustinov a decade ago

 

Yes, every flash in the pan big man who ever KO'd anyone was, all the way up until they lost.

Remember when Valuev was the hardest hitter of all time?

Oh that's too old so the children will play like it didn't happen.

Y'all remember when Fury was the GOAT? A few weeks ago.

 

You are probably confusing Valuev with Makhmudov cause Valuev was always considered to be a feather-fisted

 

All I know is when he was punching Joyce in his huge head it sounded like a cannon going off. Big Bang is also able to put people down with grazing punches. Some of his punches don't look 'hard' but knock people senseless. Credit to Parker for being able to get up and continue from two knockdowns I thought he was done after the first knockdown. Zhang is a savage puncher.

 

I don't know if he's the best puncher ever, but what I do know is that I've been watching boxing for 35 years and he's the only fighter I've seen that makes me fear for the other guy's health. After what he did to Joyce I was worried Deontay would be stretchered out. Luckily it only took one punch to take him out.

Some may say recency bias, but how many 6'6" 280 pounders with knockout power in both hands have we seen?

 

What's crazy is Zhang is flattening people with his non power hand yet we still have people on here that question his punching power

 

Tyson Fury can't punch and stopped Wilder 2x so stopping Wilder ain't really a measuring stick..

But what Zhang did to a (thus far proven) chin like Joe Joyce leads to me believe he has nuclear hands. And both the left and right are dangerous. I'm not gonna say he's an ATG puncher yet. I'll say this current era him and Joshua are standing at the top though.

 

Zhang's finishing shot on Joe was absolutely thunderous..add in that Joyce didn't ride it one inch. He took it flush.

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Joe did very well to climb back up, he really did...

 

Imagine that punch landing on Glass Joshua
Please let Hearn be dumb enough to make Zhang - Joshua in the Fall. We will owe Emperor Zhang a great deal of gratitude for retiring two Glass Jawed hype jobs in a row.