Joshua's punching power is overrated

I keep hearing about how Joshua has incredible punching power. How he basically hits as hard as Wilder, but with better technique. This has me wondering: against which fighters was this shown?

Let's take a look at the knockdowns and stoppages within the past decade over boxers who have recorded a win at HW:

2023 - Robert Helenius, age 39 KO7. Helenius was known to have a weak chin, was unranked, and had been KO1'd by Wilder a year prior.

2020 - Kubrat Pulev, age 39 KO9. Pulev was knocked down early and managed to recover, eventually being stopped by a barrage of punches. Pulev would go on to get beat up by Chisora and stopped by one shot from Gassiev. Pulev had been KO'd cold by a single shot by Klitschko five years prior.

2019 - Andy Ruiz Jr., age 30 TKO7 loss. Ruiz suffered a flash knockdown from a combination by Joshua. He was clear eyed and would get up to win the round and the fight.

2018 - Alexander Povetkin, age 39 TKO7. Povetkin was knocked down in the 7th, Joshua would go on to TKO him with a flurry of punches. Despite Povetkin's age and deterioration, this is probably Joshua's best stoppage.

2017 - Carlos Takam, age 37 TKO10. Takam, fighting on short notice, was not knocked down in the fight. He was stopped in a war of attrition by TKO.

2017 - Vladimir Klitschko, age 41 TKO11. Klitschko looked a bit old and a bit tired by the 11th. He ate a big uppercut, remained on his feet, and eventually was stopped by a flurry of punches.

To round out the decade you have TKO's of Eric Molina, Dominic Breazeale, and a KO of Charles Martin.

Looking at this list, you can't help but think: is this really such a puncher of the division? There are a lot of TKO's of older fighters. In fact, almost all of Joshua's stoppages of top 10 fighters are guys 39+ via flurry of punches. There are no impressive single shot KO's of top competition (maybe Charles "The Chin" Martin?).

When assessing Joshua's chances in hypothetical matchups, posters here often credit him as a devastating puncher. It seems it's more of a Good/Solid type of power that has squared off against a fair few war ravaged opponents. I fear that far too many folks saw the KO of Ngannou, a man who has never recorded a boxing victory, and said "this guy is like Mike Tyson". When you step back and look at the reality of the situation, there are miles between true punchers like Vladimir, Wilder, Zhang, etc., and the Good/Solid punchers like Joshua, Wardley, Kabayel.

 

See above. It's more accurate to say he's a good/solid puncher who has TKO'd a handful of bigger name 39+ year olds.