Old Time Punching Machines?

A 1985 study of Frank Bruno, who'd go on to be WBC heavyweight champ, showed he could punch with a force of 920 pounds in the lab. Researchers extrapolated that to a real-life blow of 1,420 pounds, enough to accelerate his opponent’s head at a rate of 53 g — that is, 53 times the force of gravity.

Atha, J. et al. “The Damaging Punch” British Medical Journal 291 (1985): 1756-1757

A study of 70 boxers found elite-level fighters could punch with an average of 776 pounds of force. Another study of 23 boxers showed elite fighters were able to punch more than twice as hard as novices, the hardest hitter generating almost 1,300 pounds of force.

A study of seven Olympic boxers in weight classes ranging from flyweight to super heavyweight showed a range of 447 to 1,066 pounds of peak punching force. Energy transferred from punch to target varied widely depending on how heavy the boxers’ hands and gloves were, how fast they punched, and how rigidly they held their wrists. The three flyweights, interestingly, delivered more oomph than all but the two super heavyweights.

 

Great stuff, I've commented on a 'punch-power' thread previously and got into a debate about various parameters and how disparate and hard to measure they are.

The fairground machines are all good 'bants' but any real breakdown of their gauging of actual damage done in a fight doesn't stack up.

BTW the units of force are weight PER unit area. I can take the force of a bullet no probs IF spread over my entire chest i.e. using a protective vest. Doesn't mean I can take getting shot in all circumstances though!

Take into account that the energy transfer is really what a damaging punch is all about and more so, energy transfer PER unit time.......the whole thing becomes VERY difficult to measure and quantify (even if the recipient of said punch is an inanimate object). Otherwise people would simply train their fighter mathematically with one of these machines or take a load of guys, score them and take the 'hardest hitter' and make them champ.

Great discussion though, perhaps we'll get there one day...or maybe someone will have a brain wave on one of these forums...?

 

Jeff Lacy tested around 1,000 which is remarkable for a 168 pounder and ranked the highest psi on the USA team.

The tricky part is machines can vary and gloves and wraps can can make a difference.

 

I would hit the machine with my left hook followed by a lighting fast right upper cut

 

I would be very wary about comparing data from different tests, and different era’s, but the data point to some interesting conclusions. If we take these results to be accurate, or very nearly accurate, then they point to the following conclusions:

1. The hardest hitting middleweights carry less power than the hardest hitting heavyweights, but not by that much.
2. Jeffries was indeed a top end hitter, and McVea was an absolute powerhouse.
3. The top heavyweight punchers of the pre world war I era, were up there with the likes of Frank Bruno.

 

Ah, but did they use the same gloves and wraps? Not likely. In addition Jeffries often fought without wraps.

A tightly wrapped fist adds to the power of a punch. While all three could hit I would rank Mcvey as the worst knock out artist of the three . Technique matters too. The machine doesn't test that.

 

While Jeffries didn't come out on top, he did better than some of us might have expected.

Would you have expected him to score higher than Bob Fitzsimmons, or Frank Bruno for that matter?

 

What's to say Fitz can't hit a bag or ball as hard as he ever could at age 39? The punch machine is not hitting back or moving away.

Not scoring many knockouts as he got older does not mean he's not hitting hard. It just means he's not timing them as well.

 

I have little confidence in the accuracy or even veracity of such experiments... even in the modern age. I hope to get the Johnson book soon (trudging through a bunch of Civil War stuff now) and look forward to reading this selection.

In personal experience, smaller hard hitters can certainly crack and even concuss. Larger mediocre hitter, if fit and trained, tend to move their targets in a different way, even if they don't concuss the same way. A smaller guy cracking you on the shoulder is going to hurt but not derail your footwork too much. A larger guy slapping you on the shoulder can completely derail your position... I don't know the exact physics for this... or if my experience is just not broad enough...

 

Power is the last thing a fighter looses, and these tests seem to have occurred before Fitzsimmons fell off the precipice.

He was coming off some of his best knockout wins, therefore judging him on what happened next, is perhaps not representative.