My top 55 heavyweight punchers

A few posts back you were condoning the inclusion of Pat Killen and Jeff Merritt.

I dont know anything about Pat Killen. What makes his KO win record superior to Cleveland Williams ?

As for Jeff Merritt, I know he he beat an over-the-hill Ernie Terrell. What other names are on his record as KO victims ?

I'm guessing many of the guys get their "reputation" as hard hitters because the people who see them up close, in fights, in sparring, and hitting the bag, and the people who fight them consider the punches to be hard.

 

Here are some top none champion punchers with record breakdown:
1. Elmer Ray--102 bouts-87-13-1 1 NC 70 ko's (69%)
against rated opponents 6-6 with 1 NC 3 ko's (23%)
Top five heavy ko'd-----Lee Savold

2. Turkey Thompson--72 bouts-54-15-2 1NC 39 ko's (54%)
against rated opponents--8-9-2 1 NC 5 ko's (25%)
Top five heavies ko'd-----Elmer Ray, Lee Q Murray, Gus Dorazio

3. Cleveland Williams--92 bouts-78-13-1 58 ko's (63%)
against rated opponents--11-10-1 6 ko's (27%)
top five heavies ko'd-----Ernie Terrell, John Holman

4. Earnie Shavers--89 bouts-74-14-1 68 ko's (76%)
against rated opponents--8-8-1 6 ko's (35%)
top five heavies ko'd-----Jimmy Young, Jimmy Ellis, Ken Norton, Joe Bugner

5. Bob Satterfield--80 bouts-50-25-5 35 ko's (44%)
against rated opponents--16-19-1 9 ko's (25%)
top five heavies ko'd-----Lee Oma, Bob Baker, Cleveland Williams, John Holman

6. Lee Savold--137 bouts-93-40-3 1NC 65 ko's (47%)
against rated opponents--17-21 (11 ko's) 29%
top five heavies ko'd-----Lou Nova(2), Lem Franklin(2), Johnny Flynn, Buddy Walker, Bruce Woodcock

This was taken from boxrec several months ago.
In rated fighters, I included lightheavies.

Comment--the difference between Savold and Satterfield and the others is that they fought far more rated fighters, which pulled their total percentages down.

 

What about Henry Cooper?, he had a fair old left hook 'enrys ammer'

 

You might be correct that Satterfield has a reputation and Savold does not, or at least has much less of one. But does a close analysis of their records justify that?

Ray has a huge reputation in some quarters as a puncher. Does he deserve it?

Two issues on Savold. He did not punch that effectively early in his career. How much should he be penalized for that?

Clearly someone like Williams was much better at blowing over journeyman. But is that the mark of a great puncher? I would say not.

Ken Norton against unrated fighters----38-0, 31 ko's

Joe Louis against unrated fighters----37-0, 30 ko's

Comment-nothing to choose.

Ken Norton against rated fighers----4-7-1, 2 ko's

Joe Louis against rated fighters----31-3, 24 ko's

Separates the man from the mouse, no?

 

Certainly puts the careers of Savold and Satterfield into perspective.

Those boys certainly gave the public their moneys worth when it came to taking on ranked oponents.

 

Yes but if these guys had been carefully guided and protected they might have fought a quater the number of ranked contenders, beat most of them and got to fight for the title at some point.

Imagine what you could do with a guy like Satterfield today. He would be a huge draw.

 

edit:whoops!

 

Peter and Virchis really don't merit spots on this list at this point in their careers. Generally, in order to validate that a guy's power is "real," I would say he needs to stop someone who would be generally considered at least top 20 fighter in the division, and preferably a top 10 and/or one who is a durable fighter. Neither of them has ever even stopped a top 20 heavyweight, let alone a durable one. Peter is now 0 for 4 in attempts at stopping top 20 heavyweights. Virchis is 0 for 1, or maybe 1 for 3 if one considers Vidoz to have been a top 20 heavyweight at the time. Neither of them has an especially great general knockout record that stands out and says "This guy demands recognition," nor does either of them have a knockout over anyone even remotely close to being a championship-caliber heavyweight.

Herbie Hide does have a monstrous knockout percentage, but, like Peter and Virchis, he's never stopped a current top 20 heavyweight. If he demands a spot and you're not even iffy on him, then Lamar Clark deserves a mention as well.

Rahman and McCall I'm not sure about (having not compiled one of these lists, I don't know whether or not they'd make mine), but I will point out that they're pretty much only considered harder hitters than any of a host of other contenders because of their knockouts over Lewis. Neither of them has an especially high knockout average or a credible high-level knockout resume aside from their one-hit wonders against Lewis.

Moorer's inclusion seems weird. Who did he stop at heavyweight? He narrowly outpointed Holyfield (never had him in trouble that I remember), was outpointing Foreman (never had him in trouble that I remember) before being knocked out, got hammered in the Holyfield rematch, and was knocked out in 30 seconds by Tua, and that's the whole of his elite heavyweight record. Even against top 20 fringe-contender types, he went the distance with White, stopped Cooper after a ton of punishment in a war, went the distance with Smith, went the distance with Schulz, TKO'd Botha at the tail end of the 12th round, and went the distance with Bean, and that's the whole of it. He never even came close to scoring a knockdown against an elite heavyweight, and hardly ever stopped fringe contender heavyweights (only with great deals of punishment when he did). I don't see how he belongs among the hardest-hitting heavyweights in history at all.

 

Well, if we can include guys who never KO'd a rated opponent, then

Eric "Butterbean" Esch
Joe Mesi
Lou Savarese