Underrated Power on this forum ..

Hi all, I have always thought Ali pre Manila was a bit underrated in the power department. He was also a pretty good finisher.

He managed to stop Foreman. Liston was quoted as saying something along the lines of " they said he couldnt punch, they were wrong ". He hurt Lyle with one right hand. He hurt Frazier in Ali vs Frazier 2 with one right hand in the second round. He badly hurt and stopped Bonavena.

From memory I think Ali had a record of 49-2 with 37 stoppages after the third Frazier fight. Not bad for a non puncher.

Cheers All.

 

Nice one, as usual.

 

Hopkins hit harder than often given credit for. In his early career he had the reputation as a banger, and had plenty of stoppages. Even later on when his style evolved, he hit hard enough to get respect, including at 175.

Floyd was a sharp puncher at 130. Maybe not heavy handed per se, but dropped and stopped most of his opposition.

Calzaghe was heavy handed, particularly before he had a lot of trouble with his hands. His punching technique was "unconventional" to put it politely, but he slapped pretty hard based on accounts from his opponents.

I've seen all three referred to as "light" hitters, which doesn't seem to be the case.

 

Same here! I've never understood that practice.

 

Most fans with common sense understand that a fighters power might not be the same when theyre old.

I wasnt saying that ko % is the end all be all or the best way to tell if someone hits hard, but if someone continues to ko opponents who have high rankings or good chins then its usually a good indicator of power.

Wilder is built like a heavyweight version of hearns. There is nothing phoney about his power, its wirey strength and delivered using his long limbs and height for leverage.

 

Mayweather walked down Shane Mosley and Zab Judah. He also made Canelo gun shy and knocked down Chico more times than I remember. I don't see any case for Benitez having better power and Pea had worse power than either.

 

And yet... fragile chinned Zab went all 12, without ever being seriously hurt.

Benitez would have knocked Zab out.

 

I don’t care about theoreticals. Benitez did nothing to prove he had more power than Floyd.

 

I'll never forget this one...

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Henry Armstrong banged. But other facets make his power overlooked and underrated

 

The Maurice Hope KO offers proof to me that Benitez had more power than Floyd.

I don't recall Floyd scoring too many 1 punch KO's of that nature, against that calibre of opponent at his 3rd weight class, or any weight class he fought at really.

 

Does this approach not come with it's own drawbacks, though?
I mean the sound of a blow is only as reliable as what's being picked up by and translated through the mics.

 

Who else? That's his only big knockout.

 

Certainly better than nothing, a long long way better.

 

Floyd knocked out an undefeated Ricky Hatton in his fourth weightclass.