Relationship between physical strength and punching power

Lamotta famously did not punch to the head because of his fragile hands.

Hard to tell what kind of power Holyfield had because "Evan Fields" did the figthing, if you get my drift.

Power can be a bit of a mysery. The example I use is Cooney, who was big but very physically frail. But that hook was no joke!

A lot of power comes from the legs, just like in any sport, so some of the mystery is that people are looking for the body beautifuls upstaies not realizing that the guy with the power is going to be the guy with the tree trunk legs, but even that does not say it all.

 

Then you got tommy hearns and his chicken legs

 

Well, if you have naturally muscular arms, you're gonna have that extra power than other people. So there's that way of thinking of it. Then there's also how you throw the shot, the technique. Some fighters are able to throw better than others and put more power behind it because of their technique.

So you're either naturally strong and have natural power, or you have great, honed technique which allows your shots to be more powerful. You're gonna hit harder if you're naturally bigger than someone else. That doesn't mean add more fat though. That means naturally bigger. You're either born that way or you're not.

Then you've got to consider the style of fighter. If you go looking for power punches, you're gonna hit harder than someone who doesn't because you have that intent. Ali isn't going to hit as hard on the back foot using all that movement. He prefers movement over power. If he went on the front foot more, you'd see more knockouts. I'm sure of that. Why? Because if he is fighting offensively, he is searching for power shots rather than searching to land jabs.

Compare Wilder to Joshua. This is a good example. Wilder is much less physically strong than Joshua. Wilder hits hard, if not harder than Joshua though.The way wilder gets his power is through setting up his jab, then throwing the right hand with 100% intent and technique. He's threw that punch so much that he has learnt the technique of throwing the right hand. I'd say that wilder's punches are influenced 70% by technique, 30% by physical strength.

Joshua is different. His power is natural. It's from his physical strength that he gets most of his power, it's less about technique. His arms are so large, so muscular, and that allows his punches to be much, much harder than they would be normally. He has a lot more force behind his punches than wilder. Wilder's technique makes up for that. I'd say Joshua is 70% by natural power, 30% by technique. Joshua throws much more than wilder, he has less intent on his shots. He does combinations instead of single power shots.

Again, look at the difference between Amir Khan and Errol Spence Jr. Errol puts power in his shots, his technique is pretty much flawless. That's why those body shots are so hurtful. You can tell that when Errol throws a punch, he does it with intent of hurting the opponent. Amir on the other hand, doesn't have the same kind of technique and doesn't focus on knocking the opponent out. He knows he can't focus on power shots because he isn't physically strong. He's very fast and floppy-armed at any weight. When you have floppy, fast arms, you focus on speed rather than power.

So yeah, physical strength does influence power punching. It also influences whether you focus on improving your power shot technique, which then influences whether you throw with intent.

 

He whipped his shots, didn't he? "Elastic recoil" or w/e its called.
Skinny lanky guys are often big punchers. And then you have a tank like Tim Bradley who himself cant tell if he punched you or not.

 

Just look at McGregor. With MMA gloves he could throw a lot more with "Elastic recoil". Then he put on boxing gloves and had no idea how to leverage power.

 

its all 100% genetics at the elite level any power you can unlock through technique has been very much achieved by then. did alexis arguello "whip" his shots to ? maybe it just seems that way because they lanky awkward mother****ers lol

 

Power comes from leverage.................

 

It's simple.

1) Technique
2) Speed
3) Body type
4) Musculature

I've seen some heavily muscled HW's that can't hit worth a lick. Then you get guys like Sanders that aren't that impressive in the build department but who really whipped shots in, generating massive amounts of power. How you hit is imho the #1 factor. Look at Dempsey, who perfected his system of dynamite punching to achieve absurd results against guys much bigger than him. He had technique AND speed, and wasn't builthalf bad either. Then you get the Tommy Hearns types, all long limbs (leverage!) and speed, and they could really blast too.

On the far end of the scale I guess you have giants like Valuev, who simply have so much mass that they can make up for lack of technique, speed or musculature.

 

Marciano.

Former catcher. Low to the ground. superhuman strong .

Devastating power.

Don Turner said hardest puncher ever

 

Strength is different to power.

To put it in layman's terms strength is maximal force generated in total, while power is how much force is generated per set period of time. Which is why power which is measured in Watts which is the measurement of joules per second and not total joules.

When punching, strength only helps if you can utilise that strength into creating power, if you cannot generate maximal force or close to it, in the time to throw a punch then your overall superior strength won't be a factor, which why speed is an integral aspect of punching power.

But even if you have the raw strength and the necessary speed to convert that strength in the time required to generate significant power do you have the technique to convert that raw strength and deliver it in the form of a meaningful blow, if not then all you have is speed.

So first you need the basic strength, then you need the technique to deliver that strength into your punches and then the speed to covert that strength into power.

But then of course you get even more complex and you have to factor in things like accuracy of your punching and the timing of your punching. You can have the big punch but it's meaningless if you can't land it cleanly and if your timing is good and you can deliver that accurate hard punch in the form of a counter then your power again is greatly increased.

 

Don Turners wrong, and has been number of times !

 

Throwing your shoulders in your punches.

 

All great explanations above but the missing aspect is the joint/structural integrity upon impact.

When you throw a punch and connect, it’s your bones and joints absorbing the shock, not muscles. Upon connecting there is force that will transfer to your opponents head and there is force recoiling back at your fist-wrist-elbow-shoulder and further down that biokinetic chain. Your job is to maintain the joint integrity upon impact so as to MINMIZE the “power leak” at the joints. You want as much force to transfer to your opponents head and not back at you. Now you can see how skeletal structure and/or integrity is hugely influenced by genetics. Hence, “punchers are born”.

However, there is something you can do regarding this. Martial arts teach you to stiffen and rigid your entire body, right upon impact to minimize any power loss. Look at GGG’s entire musculature upon hittting Rubio with that monster downward left hook, his entire body stiffens upon impact.