Though they didn't have punch stats in those days, after seeing Willie Pep in his prime, I'm sure he had countless bouts landing a blizzard, without return.
Well, Lewis landed 15-fold against Golota :yep 30 to 2! That's a bit better than 2.27... After that I think it would be the Tyson and Jackson fights, he landed nearly 4 times as many there. Clearly Ali's is a special total. Conceding so few punches is rare but not unlikely, but landing so many in return is. Botha only managed to land about 9 punches in two rounds against Lewis, but only took 24 in return (the last 4 I think he'd rather have avoided...)
Young Griffo vs Pedlar Palmer would be interesting on compubox. Alegedly neither fighter landed a clean punch!
Thanks for all the input, some interesting fights mentioned, but unfortunately no stats for many of them. Based on this analysis so far though, would it be fair to say that Ali's performance against Williams is the greatest boxing exhibition ever, from any weight category. Superior to any performance from SRR et al?
Have you ever seen those punch stats that the referee, Maxie Moore (with the use of a "clicker" in each hand) came up with for Griffo's fight with McAuliffe, Janitor?
Can anyone check Mosley vs. Golden Johnson. I remember in the 7th round (think) Johnsons landed 0 punches.
I don't know about that. I think you have to take into account the caliber of the opposition. Williams had a nice little winning streak but was years past his prime, and literally a shot fighter. It was beautiful to watch, but then again, so are some ofother guys' displays against overmatched opponents.
Hearns - Dough DEwitt............don,t know the stats.....but Hearns threw loads of punches againts very few from Dewitt.....
I hear you, Can you provide more info on 'the other guys who have excelled against overmatched opponents.' What were their punch stats as a comparison? Also, while '66 Williams is routinely bagged on this forum I note that 1) he turned up in superb physical condition and 2) at least he appeared to try to land some punches. In my book, this puts him ahead of guys like Oliver McCall (blubbing instead of fighting), Oleg Maskaev (out of shape) and Ray Mercer (out of shape).
I've never seen someone attempt to compile punchstats for it, but if one did I would imagine that Louis/Schmeling II would feature numbers comparable percentage wise to those given for Ali/Williams, provided one round fights are eligible for mention in the thread.
It definitely counts, and would be interested to hear the stats. Of course, the longer the superiority is sustained, the more impressive the performance...