The Threat Is Real.... Or Is It? Putting Punching Power Into Its Proper Perspective.

All too often in this sport fanboys become easily overwhelmed and lose their marbles the moment they see a brutal KO from a rising star, usually one from their own country. Especially if its against a fighter who rarely gets KO'd or if they KO said fighter faster than someone has previously. The hype train begins, soon the fighter that is being hyped becomes an unstoppable killing machine capable of bulldozing everything in its path, nothing can withstand the thunderous power they possess, they are instantaneously, "The Next Big Thing" fans and media outlets will promptly get behind them fully and proclaim them the second coming of Mike Tyson or Julian Jackson, and the moment they get in the ring with a fighter who can take their power, they either lose, or their mystique fades and often times fans lose interest. Its a very predictable pattern, it happens over and over and over again. So I'm going to attempt to place a few fighters currently being hyped as beasts among men due to their immense punching power into its proper perspective.

First you have to look at who's being KO'd, many fighters go through a litany of opponents who have more losses than wins on their resumes for their first 10 to 15 fights, they've usually already been KO'd by a who's who of rising attractions, KO's over these opponents usually aren't indicative of anything but how shot and glass jawed their opponent is at that point, who cares. Then they move on to the tough rugged journeymen who are known for being stiff tests before getting KO'd late, usually they do a good job of exposing the hypejobs of the lot, either by taking them the distance for the first time or by KOing them. Then we move on to fighters with perfect or damn near perfect records in a prospect vs. prospect match, but most of the time, there's always a pretty good indication which of the two is the real deal, and the prospect being brought in as the victim usually has minimal power, so the reality is the promoter is just getting the most bang for his buck, he knows one prospect probably won't amount to much, so they use them as a sacrificial victim for their rising star that they can make more money with in the long run.

Then they move them up to guys who used to be semi relevant in the not so distant past, that have been involved with high profile matches, at this point they are on the verge or have begun their descent into irrelevancy, usually they have limited power, so the young star can slice through them with relative ease, because they've usually been in so many wars at that point their once iron chins have begun to rust. So the shocking KO victory over the once iron chinned guy, in reality isn't all that shocking. Then after all of these tests have been passed, they get to take on a solid B-level fighter and they're on their way to superstardom, their paths of destruction are usually a carefully managed illusion, because its promoters jobs to build stars and make fans think they are the monsters they're making them out to be. Sometimes when they take on their first real test, their power holds up they score a sensational KO, and are a bonafide hit, and sometimes they falter and prove to be very human.


So let me see if I can gleefully bust some balloons here.

Errol Spence Jr. - He stopped Chris Algieri, Earl's a Beast right? It remains to be seen. The only reason Chris was stopped by Spence is because Spence's style isn't the greatest style for someone like Algieri to have to deal with. Provo couldn't finish Chris because Provo can't cut off the ring worth a damn, he follows, all Chris did was copy the blueprint set by Tim after he was hurt. The reality is Manny probably could have stopped him, but Manny is lacking his killer instinct lately, and his power isn't quite as awesome as it used to be, because he's a natural Flyweight fighting at Welterweight and old, and even he managed to drop Chris 6 friggin times. Chris made the mistake of thinking he was a slugger at WW because he stood toe to toe with Amir Khan, whose power is less than phenomenal. He tried that with Spence who cuts off the ring exceptionally well and paid dearly for it, its as simple as that. Then we move onto Chris Van Heerden, who he beat on for 8 rounds before he finally went down, and who has Van Heerden been in with that is a massive puncher? None really, so his chin remains a question mark. Errol's other big win is against Phil Lo Greco, who Porter couldn't even KO, but Porter isn't a huge KO artist either, but even he managed to drop him. That win would have meant a little more had Phil not been called in as a late replacement, not getting a full training camp in, and add to that he'd only fought 8 rounds in the last 25 months, so he might not have been adequately prepared for someone like Spence at a moment's notice.

I'm not saying Spence doesn't have any power, but can any of you truly say to yourselves with conviction that the same thing wouldn't happen to those three against Brook and Thurman as well, maybe even Porter with Van Heerden and Algieri. He's got decent power, but not devastating, he wears his opponents down, he isn't a one punch KO type of guy.


Artur Beterbiev - While I really want to believe that Artur is the beast I think he is, I do doubt his power as well. We've already seen evidence he may not be packing the power of Kovalev, he went 4 rounds with Campillo before stopping him, it only took Kovalev 3, this is a Campillo who was also coming off of a match with Williams Jr. and being stopped by Fonfara. It was an impressive performance, but at that point Campillo was a shell of the guy who took on The Krusher, he retired soon after. He stopped Maderna, when Edwin Rodriguez couldn't, but Edwin's power is a mystery, sometimes he blows guys out in a round sometimes he goes the distance, his power is inconsistent, other than that, Maderna's chin is unproven at the top of the sport. The Alexander Johnson match sent off warning bells to me, Beterbiev beat him severely, but he took them well for quite awhile before finally giving out, so that tells me against a capable defender or a rangy mover with a decent jab, Beterbiev may struggle, the Cloud win was damn impressive, since he dropped him 4 times, when Stevenson couldn't drop him once, but it also should be obvious to most people Cloud didn't realize how big a puncher Beterbiev is and clearly took him lightly and may have been caught off guard, and he hadn't fought in a year, so the it wasn't like he was facing the pre B-Hop Cloud that may have still had a modicum of confidence or anything. He's a beast for sure, but how much of a beast remains to be seen, he's yet to face an elite fighter in their prime, that power may seemingly get a lot less impressive over night, its happened before.

Anthony Joshua - This guy who didn't score a hell of a lot of KO's in the ams is all of a sudden a muscled up monster dispatching guys left and right, no one can take his seemingly insurmountable power, but who exactly has he obliterated? Cut the s*** Airich. Bakhtov, Skelton, Sprott, Gavern and Love are all walking punching bags, who have been KO'd several times in the past, so what. But he KO'd the unKOable Kevin Johnson, who was near retirement and probably didn't think a prolonged 12 round beating was worth the money they were paying him. Who is Gary Cornish again? Dillian Whyte, who almost KO'd him in 2, who most claimed was a future P4P HW star post the AJ performance that he valiantly lasted 7 rounds against with one arm, but since then he has looked thoroughly average in every way, and couldn't KO David Allen no matter how hard he tried, who knows how good Whyte's chin is, he's never been in with a real puncher, it might be made of pure china. That brings us to my favorite Charles Martin, who pulled a despicable quit job if I've ever seen one, he could have gotten up, but he clearly showed up for a paycheck as well, how good is his chin, who knows, it hadn't been tested yet. Dominic Breazeale lasted 7 rounds and even after he was dropped he still got up, and that isn't the sign of him having an iron chin, its not very good to be honest, Mansour almost had him out in the 3rd of their fight and he'd been dropped by another bum previously, granted AJ didn't want to make a mistake so he played it safe, but even then, if his power is so great, shouldn't the sheer amount of one twos he was landing done the job in 3 or 4, but no it took 7 again. AJ doesn't have concussive power either, he's fast and the speed catches guys off guard and stuns them, they go down, get back up, and AJ flurries on them, the ref in the UK freak out as usual and stop the fight, its a repetitive pattern There's yet to be a truly frightening Tyson like savage KO on AJ's resume to date, aside from the Whyte KO, who was gassing so badly, he looked like he was going to keel over anyway.

Ask yourselves this question, how long would AJ's opponents to date last against Ortiz, Wilder, Wlad or even David Haye. David could probably savagely KO the whole lot of them, and in quicker more dominant fashion, it is what it is. None of AJ's opponents see the final bell against any of them, Parker, Granat, Usyk and maybe even Lucas Browne could probably take them all out with ease as well.

 

Canelo Alvarez - The illusion that has been built up that Canelo Alvarez is some type of scary KO artist is one of the more ridiculous notions I've seen in quite awhile. What are his most impressive KO's James Kirkland and Carlos Baldomir. The win over James Kirkland is completely invalidated by Kirkland's KO loss to Nobuhiro Ishida in the first round, Ishida is anything but a KO artist at Middleweight he's the definition of a featherfist, yet he dropped Kirkland 3 three times causing Joe Cortez to stop the match correctly, Kirkland was legitimately hurt. As far as Baldomir goes, he was a shot to hell 39 year old war torn version and Canelo caught him with the perfect shot after he'd been tenderizing him for 6 rounds and even then he didn't KO him cold, he just went down face first but rolled over and couldn't get up. Canelo couldn't hurt Hatton as badly as Kell Brook a Welterweight, didn't hurt Trout as badly as light hitting Lara and Daniel Dawson, didn't hurt Cotto as badly as Mayweather didn't hurt Mosley as much as Pacquiao, Forrest, Mayorga or Mayweather, didn't KO a shot to hell Cintron as impressively as Martinez (fight was restarted) and Margarito, never came close to hurting Lara, yet Angulo almost KO'd him twice, never dropped Angulo or had him badly hurt, didn't hurt Floyd as bad as Corley, Mosley, Cotto, Pacquiao, Maidana or Judah, beat Rhodes for 12 rounds before he stopped him, featherfisted Rabchenko stopped him in 5. Canelo's stoppage win over Gomez was BS and far less impressive than Cotto's.

But he did get a horrific beautifully orchestrated KO win over a glass jawed Lightweight named Amir Khan.

Terence Crawford - Is he a KO artist? No he's not, he's not all that powerful, but speed and accuracy kills, many of the KD's he scores are sudden and abrupt, he jolts his opponents knocking them off balance, but they usually hop right back up. He couldn't badly hurt Prescott, Klimov or Beltran who's been KO'd a few times in the past. He didn't drop Burns like Zlaticanin did, and he didn't break his jaw like Ray did. The KO of Gamboa doesn't carry much weight with me, I never had a doubt that match would end in a KO, with Crawford being victorious, Gamboa a featherweight was just too small to compete, and had showed chinnyness in the past. Dulorme has no chin at all, Jean has never faced a half way decent puncher, and Lundy was stopped by Molina in the past. Even the shots he dropped Postol with, Viktor popped right back up from, Postol is just awkward as hell and was continually off balance, because he'd been taken out of his comfort zone and made to fight in a style that was anathema to him. Lucas may have had similar success if he had the speed and was capable of attacking from weird angles, but he wasn't. No doubt Bud can crack, but you're badly mistaken if you think he's a GGG like KO artist, you can fully expect his KO victories to dry up from here, the further up North he moves in weight. He realized that Postol probably wasn't going anywhere, and that a safety first approach probably suited him best, just in case.

The same thing can be said about many other fighters from Wilder to One Time to Inoue to Chocolatito to Brook to Usyk to Parker to Walters etc. Who while all pack a wicked wallop, I'm not sure if I'd call any of them savage KO artists, and many of their recent performances prove it.

Guys with frightening power like Kovalev, Stevenson, Golovkin, Wladimir, Jackson, Hearns, Tua, Tyson are few and far between, so just because you see some new guy coming along that seems to have the goods because he's blasting guys out of there left and right. Sure they have power, they have amazing power compared to the Malignaggi's, Guerrero's and Algieri's of the sport, but try to hesitate before declaring them the next Mike Tyson because in all probability they're not. Stop and think for a few seconds about what you just witnessed, fine you may have been impressed, but try not to go overboard and blow it out of proportion, because usually that's exactly what we all do. Study their records and the opponents they just viciously KO'd records, and try to put it into its proper perspective, because sometimes what we see is but a carefully orchestrated well matched, well timed and brilliantly staged illusion.


Please use this thread to question the punching power of fighters you may not be fully buying the hype on power wise, Discuss.