Seriously who hits harder Foreman, Wilder, Tyson, Shavers, Wlad, or Lewis

Charlie Z survived Wilder's shots, including a clean cheap shot landed while Charlie was downed. He got up. What that means, I don't know, but that happened.

 

That's fair enough to say, as all three guys were a little on the small side at HW but punched way above their weight.

Shavers would have fought at CW today.

 

Wilder probably hits harder with his right than Tyson based purely on body mechanics, but Tyson could KO anyone with almost any shot and do so in the blink of an eye. No need to wind up, just pure explosiveness and savage intentions. Finishing abilities I'd pick Tyson every time. Wilder just gets too wild and sloppy when he has a fighter hurt.

Foreman was probably the heaviest handed of all of those guys, but if you were tough enough and could prepare yourself for the shots you could withstand them, simply because he was so telegraphed and slow. I could imagine his punches had a tremendous cumulative effect throughout the course of a fight though.

Lennox and Wlad I think combined the best mix of power, technique and delivery. Lennox looked slightly heavier handed, and Wlad was the quicker and 'whippier' puncher. Wlad also tended to hold back in order not to expose himself to counter shots. Had he thrown more of his weight into his punches he'd have been very scary.

 

Shavers would probably fight at CW today. Most of those guys cut from 210/215 anyway, and Shavers was kind of fleshy and smooth at the weight. If you rate him on that basis he was actually a freakishly huge puncher. Massive detonation and heavy handedness that you rarely see in anyone at that weight, plus a wild aggressive style that made him very dangerous against taller, bigger opponents. Kind of like a combination of Marco Huck and Dimitri Kudryashov lol.

 

Who did Shavers really stop to prove himself though? Norton? Ellis? That's about it as far as I can see, and neither man was exactly known for having an iron chin. Besides that his only knockdown (not knockout) of note was against Holmes, and I don't see how that's a million miles away from Wilder's KD of Fury.

 

Louis punched hard without doubt but he was more Povetkin -like in that it was his accuracy and combination punching that did the damage. None of the guys listed are near Louis in terms of combination punching except for arguably Tyson, and even then not often.

 

Shavers. Both Ali and Holmes stated on television they've never been hit harder. In Ali's case this is especially notable, thinking of Cooper, Foreman, Lyle, Frazier, Liston...

Shavers' right hand made even Big George's take a back seat imo.

 

People also don't seem to see just how much snap there could be in Earnie's punches. His right hand, not as much, but he had a really powerful left hook that he was quite capable of whipping (snapping back fast). It was actually more of a factor in his kayos overall than most people would like to think.

I'm sorry, there aren't many shots I've seen harder than the ones he hit Ali and Holmes with, especially the latter. He had Ali out on his feet more than once in their fight (Ali wasn't fooling anyone but Earnie with his showboating), and it stunned the world when Holmes got back up after that right (which might have been the most brutally powerful punch in boxing history). Just watch that punch on Holmes again, even slow mo it. It boggles me today that Larry not only recovered, but got back into control within short minutes.

 

I wouldn't call Shavers a snappy puncher, especially. He was more of a heavy-handed wrecking ball type of guy, albeit one with a bit more speed and explosiveness than a lot of guys that fit that stripe. He also had pretty good timing, and was decent at looping his overhand right over an opponent's jab, which often caused a lot of damage. I agree his left tends to get overlooked, his left to the body especially, which set up the majority of his right hands when he had fighters pinned against the ropes.

I don't think anything I've ever seen of Shavers on tape was especially mind-boggling. Of hard punches at HW that fighters got up from I'd put Wilder's right on Fury, Wlad's right on Joshua, and Whyte's left to Parker's jaw in a similar ballpark, and that's just in the past few years. I'd also claim that Tyson's OH right that put Holmes down in a similar fashion was just as hard as Shavers's. It made a similar shotgun sound on impact and dropped Holmes stiff legged to the canvas. At any rate it's hard to argue that it was any lesser a shot.

 

Nearly everyone that fought him said he was the hardest puncher they faced including Holmes, Cobb and Ali and Lyle both of whom felt Foreman's power. As a fighter he was limited but as a puncher no way is his power overrated. When people who felt Foreman, Tyson, Weaver, Liston, Frazier etc power yet they put you at number you clearly are a serious puncher.

 

IMO this has to boil down to Foreman & Shavers ...True Power!

 

Yes, he was a serious puncher for his size, but he wasn't anywhere near the hardest HW puncher of all time. That's what I'm comparing him against when I call him overrated.

 

If you put Foreman, Liston and Tyson in the mix for hardest punchers ever yet men you have faced those and Shavers say Shavers is a harder puncher he is clearly in the discussion. They would know, why would someone like Ali say Shavers hit harder then Foreman he has nothing to gain from saying this he clearly felt more power from Earnie.

 

This might sound disrespectful but I don't really care what fighters have to say about another fighter's power. Too much bias and room for error when your consciousness is a hair away from being separated from your body. In fact the more they have to say about a fighter's power the less he was probably hurting them, since you can't feel anything when you're unconscious.

Based on the eye test I don't consider Shavers to be a harder puncher than guys like Tyson, Tua etc. As a CW (which I believe Shavers would be today) I consider him a very hard puncher, easily up there with the likes of Sellers, Kudryashov and co.

 

I really like your post! But if you check back on Earnie's fights...check out how Foreman and Tyson threw the right. Foreman was heavier, ponderous, like having a refrigerator land on you. Tyson was the bullwhip, speed and brutal force. Shavers was the Atomic Bomb.

Earnie had better hand speed than a lot of people give him credit for. Obviously faster than George, but of course not as fast as prime Mike.

Both Ali and Holmes said when Earnie hit them it hurt their whole body.