The hardest hitting heavyweights of all time

Some relatively unknown names who weren´t mentioned yet:


Bob Nestell
Mac Foster
Tommy Gomez
Lem Franklin
Tom Sharkey
Bob Martin

 

Shavers
Foreman
Liston
Foster (Mac)
Marciano
In no particular order after Shavers as #1, and Foreman #2.

 

:thumbsup

 

He could hit with the best of 'em IMO.

 

Exactly, lot of people who faced him or who saw him in the gym say he punched harder than Liston or Shavers... he was really a monster-puncher, very underrated

 

Nah, Sharkey wasn't a killer puncher with elite power. What he was was an extremely durable, violent brawler who could dish out or absorb a frightening amount of punishment over the course of a fight. His title fight with Jeffries is remarkable for how brutally dirty it was, and you know we're only seeing the most blatant tactics on that crummy old footage.

 

IMO he´s not a bad pick when I read here names like Schmeling. He KO´d almost everyone he faced, he scored almost only clear KO´s, not mostly TKO´s or so, and opponents like Jeffries said that Sharkey had sick power, so I believe he was really a very good if not great puncher (especially p4p), but I agree with the "dirty part" you wrote about him...

 

Well he had Ali stunned more than once with single blows and almost decapitated poor Holmes so i'd say he's got a bit behind him. Never mind his record, his one punch power is utterly ridiculous.

 

Other less well-known punchers include :

Curtis "Hatchetman" Sheppard (the original from the 1940s, not the tomato can who stole his name)

Elmer "Violent" Ray

Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams

 

Audley Harrison without doubt.

 

1. Shavers
2. Marciano
3. Tyson
4. Dempsey
5. Louis
6. Lennox Lewis
7. Foreman
8. Liston
9. Baer
10. Johansson (tie) Frazier
hon men - Gerry Cooney, Ron Lyle

 

Fitszimmons deserves a mention as well. Hes not the hardest hitter but a very powerful fighter especially for his size.

 

It seems that everybody who remembers being hit by Shavers says he was clearly the hardest puncher they faced. This opinion is shared by Ali, Holmes, Norton, the late Jimmy Young, and Leroy Caldwell (who was also hit by Cleveland Williams, George Foreman and Ron Lyle).

Caldwell has famously stated that Shavers hit harder than Foreman and Lyle put together.

My number two is the Dempsey who was lifting Willard off his feet with third round bodyshots in Toledo. (On the film, you can see Big Jess actually hop into the air when Jack buries his hook into the short ribs.) Dempsey pounded the top of Tommy Gibbons' skull into a mass of red welts and bruises.

Jim Jeffries fractured Gus Ruhlin's ribs with his hook. When his left arm was disabled as an effective weapon for his title fight rematch with Tom Sharkey, Jeff inflicted fractures on the left side of Sailor Tom's body with his right hand alone. Tex Rickard claimed that Jeff hit harder than Dempsey. (Jeff also wore two ounce gloves in competition, to Jack's five ounce mitts. Dempsey also destroyed much larger competition.)

Max Baer didn't have the most accurate delivery system in the world, but monstrous power in his right when he did strike home with bad intentions.

Separating Foreman's sheer punching power from his chin and physical strength can be something of a challenge to isolate, but he did beat down Frazier in devastating fashion twice, and left Ali pissing blood for three days. Like Jeffries and Baer, he claimed to refrain from using his full force for fear of killing an opponent. Of course in Baer's case, this became a reality.

Jess Willard killed Bull Young with an uppercut. If he had the bloodthirsty temperament of an early Foreman or Duran, Young may not have been the only fatality on his resume. Like Jeffries and Baer though, he could be rather laid back in his approach.