Who had the best left hook in heavyweight history?

Shavers left hook was very underrated. He nearly decapitated Lyle with it, and looked to have him seriously hurt, more so than Holmes when he got dropped by Shavers's right. Lyle looked out of it. I've no idea how he got back in the fight (I know that's said a lot about Shavers but it really holds true here).

 

I agree with most of this. In terms of pure power I'd probably go either Tua or Cooney, both very different body types that were able to generate massive power from their respective frames. With Cooney though you could kind of see the mechanics he used to generate the power; with Tua it just looked effortless, like his fists had sleep powder on them or something.

Povetkin is another underrated left hooker. Not only crisp and explosive but very versatile as well. His double and triple hooks were highly impressive in his prime, and often caught opponents out who were expecting a follow up right. He's still active of course, but I think he's built up a sufficiently decent body of work to be rated here.

Just FTR Evander also dropped Mercer for the first time in his career with a vicious left, mistakenly referred to by Lampley as a bodyshot in the commentary to the Mercer Wlad fight.

 

I don't think anyone on that list besides Frazier has what it takes to drag Tyson into the deep waters that'd make a victory possible. Patterson, Dempsey and Louis would all get decapitated early, Morrison would get blasted out, Ruddock we already know what happened, and Tua would get outboxed and treated like a heavy bag. I honestly don't think Frazier lasts the distance either, though he should obviously be considered the leading man to beat Mike.

 

If I were to devise a similar tournament I'd drop out Patterson, Louis and Dempsey, add in Evander, Povetkin and Cooney, and match everyone up as follows:

Morrison vs Povetkin
Ruddock vs Cooney
Evander vs Frazier
Tyson vs Tua

Even then I don't know if it would really prove anything, but those would be some ridiculously exciting matchups!

 

He wasn't a front runner.