My top 55 heavyweight punchers

"the heavies who can't punch have lower KO's and don't knock out many previously ranked guys"

Just not necessarily true. Many men with high ko percentages such as Sharkey, Firpo, and Buddy Baer, did not knock out many top men who were rated or would have been rated if there had been ratings. Men like Moore, Charles, Savold, Satterfield, etc ko'd many more ranked fighters in their eras. Charles, for example, ko'd Bivins, Ray, Baksi, Valentino, Beshore, Oma, Layne, Kahut, Reynolds, Harrison, Wallace, and Satterfield, as well as Moore and Lesnevich, all of whom were rated at one time or another at heavyweight.
As far as I can tell, the only rated fighter Ray with his high ko % stopped was Savold. Gomez had a high ko percentage but only a few men, such as Muscato and Flynn, were rated. Guys like Lamar Clark had fantastic ko percentages but never ko'd even a journeyman level fighter.

 

Fair enough.

 

Moore, off a quick perusal of boxrec, had 86 fights against heavyweights
and scored 57 ko's for a percentage of 66%. Moore was actually a better puncher at heavy than he had been at the lighter weights, probably reflecting increased finishing ability coming with experience. Moore ko'd 19 men who weighed 200 lbs or more.

 

A quick at this shows that percentages can be misleading. Not the low positions of Dempsey and Max Baer. How many think Tucker or Moorer are bigger punchers than those guys.

Also, this list by no means complete. Where are Buddy Baer (45 of 57 for 79%), Bruce Woodcock (31 of 39 for 79%), Charley Retzlaff (52 of 75 for 69%), or Tami Mauriello (60 of 96 for 63%).

 

Moore stopped Jimmy Bivins three times (out of a total of 5 knockouts suffered by Bivins in his career) and Bivins is not only a Hall-of-Famer but was rated the #26 heavyweight by Ring Magazine in their all-time ratings. Moore scored a total of 9 knockouts against men ranked as a top five heavyweight by Ring Magazine at one time or another.

I don't see the low knockout percentage argument either. His 66% ko percentage against heavies is higher than those of Dempsey or Max Baer for their careers. As Janitor points out, old timers tend to have lower ko percentages for a number of reasons, one being that fights were not stopped as quickly as they are today.

 

Killen and Merrit sound good to me. No way was Tucker a puncher and at the danger of severe internet attack, what good fighters did Cleveland Williams ko?

 

Nice to see Ruddock getting a mention, his raw power was chilling at times. Not too sure about Hide he carried power for sure, but I think Golota would be a better choice.

 

Don't really get Tucker's inclusion, though (ludicrously overrated fighter too). I'd put Dokes and Page ahead of him in terms of being harder hitters.

 

If i had to choose between Hide or Golota as a puncher it would be Hide every time. I think it was Riddick Bowe who said that it was Hide who really got his attention when he landed. Hide stopped an admittedly shopworn Tony Tucker in 2 rounds and his KO% of fights won was 97.5%. Hide was far from being a great fighter by any means but he was a real sharp puncher.