This is a recurring theme. Patterson said that Liston's punches didn't hurt him, that he just felt floaty, and almost had a feeling of gratitude concerning his loss of senses: there was no fear or pain. Foreman describes being hit by Ron Lyle as just a feeling of numbness and that there was "no pain." Elbows McFadden described the hardest punch he ever took (and he fought Sam Langford so he should know) as being against Kid Lavigne and that it "didn't hurt...i just felt like my head was swollen or I was floating." Any other examples? Any thoughts on this?
So many factor play into this. I've been hit by a short shot on the chin inside which didn't hurt at all, but I lost control of my legs completely. I've had my ribs broken by a body shot and that hurt a lot. I've had my eye busted open by a shot to the orbital and I didn't really feel it all. I think if you are in a fight addrenalum takes over to some extent but it's always been my experience that no matter how heated the fight was I always felt the body shots more than head blows and the shots to the face hurt the next day.
You ever been really really mega-bombed but able to get up and control your legs? I mean the kind of shot that makes you go "ooooooooooo ****!" if you see it on tv?
It's not necessarily the hardest punches that don't hurt, but the best punches. It's happened to me a few times when someone has proper banged me, you just go into surreal dazey mode but you don't feel pain like when someone twists your skin or something like that.
Dave Green said that the punch Sugar Ray Leonard hit him with was so clean,he never even had a headache.
That's true the punches you don't see do the most damage but they don't seem to hurt as much especially if you get knocked out. I've never been knocked out but I've been hit by shots that hurt me and forced me to take a knee and shots that didn't hurt but took my legs away and dropped me to the canvas. It's a strange feeling. Getting hit in the jaw hurts too.
The role of pain is to send a message to your brain that a part of your body is exposed to a stress, allowing the body to withdraw from a damaging situation. Stress signals are transmitted through neuronal cells by the release of molecules that will bind to neuronal receptors. An overexess of those molecules may provoke a desensibilization of those receptors and stop "pain" signals. That is why you may feel more pain when hitting your little toe on the wall than when you dislocate your shoulder. Also, I've read somewhere that specific neurones are activated by abnormally intense stimuli (such as a George Foreman's punch) causing nociceptive pain. Activation of those neurones sends a message of visceral pain, which is described as being a diffuse, difficult to locate pain accompanied by nausea and vomiting. The explanation could be somewhere between those two things I remember from my biology books. Sorry for the nerd moment.
That's interesting guys, but these guy seem to draw a firm line between getting hit by the hardest shots they took - the big massive punches that knock you out - and good punches or clean punches or a hard good clean punch form a non-puncher or whatever. Seems interesting.
Interestingly enough the guy that hurt me the most wasn't a big puncher he just caught me on the chin inside.
Chris Finnegan said after being knocked out by Bob Foster in the 14th round of their 1972 fight of the year...Ït was actually quite nice..." Chris had taken just as hard punches as the KO blow earlier in the fight, like when Knocked down in the 10th round, but in the 14th...Allied to the exhaustion of such a game effort, Chris couldnt beat the count, he had little energy left, i suspect this "Surrendering" to ones extreme fatique, and letting the relaxation of recovery Endorphine Flood (?) creep back into ones muscles can be euphoric,
In some ways, I think this is more notable. The sweeping right hook Hagler slams Minter's head back with at 5:46 immediately cases Alan to react as though he was suffering brain freeze, a migraine or some sort of sinus headache. One of the most painful looking hard punches I've ever seen, and it takes Minter around five seconds to regain normal posture and resume jabbing back. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z184W81eVo0[/ame]
Yeah it's bloody freak. I don't know about your science there,but it's better than anything I could have come up with.
I remember Billy Backus stated that Pipino Cuevas' punches felt like "he had rocks in his gloves." I would take that to mean that the punches were heavy and painful. Considering how Backus looked after the brief fight, I suspect he was right on the mark in his description.