Who hit harder....Foreman or Marciano?

The Rock....broke bones and bloodvessels.....carried his power into the later rounds...if there were any!!!

 

This brought a smile to my face...

I would also go with Foreman, although Rocky got the job done quite nicely anyway.
I must say though, that Rocky's punches arguably carried more force for the first six inches or so. Basically, his short punches may have been 'harder.'
George, with those long limbs, carried monster power at the end of his shots and almost undoubtedly hit harder when his punches reached maximum velocity.

 

Nice post. Logically you are correct. Marciano had more stamina in order to sustain his power punches for 15 rounds. Foreman is the hardest hitter in heavyweight history IMO, but in his early career, stamina was an issue for him and his power diminished after the middle rounds.

 

Rocky Better 1 Punch Power But Big George Had Better Overall Power

 

BIG DEE HERE= Foreman wasn`t even the hardest hitter of his generation as Earnie Shavers was by a long shot as if Shavers hit you clean the fight was over with one punch but he wasn`t the fighter that Foreman was as you all know anyway. But Earnie Shavers hit guys with one punch and the fight was over as they were out before they hit the damn floor. If Foreman had his kind of power which to this day I`m glad he didn`t he would have killed someone
and I really mean that as nobody in those days had more men carried out of the ring endways as did Earnie Shavers NOBODY.

 

Well Foreman's fores keep getting up. Marciano left them out cold.

 

BIG DEE HERE= And with in need of dental work quite badly. Marciano of any
Heavyweight in the last 60 yrs messed more teeth up than anybody I can think of.

 

Well can you see Marciano ko'ing Frazier and Norton in 2 rounds. No didn't think so. Nuff said on this nonsense LOL.

 

Freddie Askew who was ko'd by a young Foreman told this story,,and it should put this post to bed...When young and on a Tennesse farm Fred was kicked in the head by an enraged horse and didn't wake up for two days,,,Freddie said George hit harder. Nuff said.

 

Magoo, the pre 1954 slugger version of marciano was certainly a one punch ko artist who knocked out young durable guys like layne and matthews out cold with 1-2 punches, not just the old ones.

 

Tough call but I'd go with George. The man was a monster even in his 40's. In a way though it's really not fair to compare the two power-wise as they beat on different type fighters. I have a hard time seeing Marciano doing to Frazier and Norton what Foreman did to them but I can see George destroying most of Rocky's opponents except maybe Walcott. Rocky's advantage was that he carried his power late in a fight more consistently than George due to his better stamina(Moorer being the exception). Another factor is the comparative sizes of Rocky and George's opponents. Would Marciano's punches have the same effect on fighters the size and quality of men such as Norton, Frazier, Lyle, Ali, Holyfield, Moorer et al? We lionize Rocky's power to the point of legend but the fact is the fighters of Rocky's time weren't terribly big by modern standards. Most would be considered light heavyweights. Knocking out a 175lb Harry Matthews or 188lb Roland LaStarza or Archie Moore and a severely blown up middleweight like Don Cockell isn't quite the same as bowling over Joe Frazier or Ken Norton or KOing Ron Lyle in a brutal war. I'm not saying that Rocky couldn't punch. That would be stupid. I'm just not sure he could punch in the same ballpark as a more modern day slugger like Foreman.

 

I can see Marciano taking out Norton in much the same way Gerry Cooney did.

 

Of the two, Marciano actually has a substantially more impressive track record when it comes to single-punch damage, having done in the likes of Walcott (twice), Layne, Matthews, and numerous journeymen with one or two shots. Foreman's only real noteworthy stoppage of this variety is the Moorer knockout- all the others (Frazier, Norton, Chuvalo, Lyle, etc.) came from extended bludgeonings, usually with multiple knockdowns.
That said, though, what's really impressive about Foreman's power is the way that opponents just crumble under it, early and immediately. He doesn't need to connect exceptionally cleanly or just right; he just swats opponents obtusely and they go down like they've been struck by a hurricane. I think he fails to keep people down for 10 most of the time because he has sort of a clubbing, batting, roundhouse quality to his shots as opposed to a more piercing one. He doesn't just give you a single "BAM!" and the lights go out, but the sheer force of his shots bowls you over, disorients you and renders you utterly helpless before his onslaught. Hence, you're more likely to see a Marciano fight going along uneventfully before Marciano comes up with a single, crushing shot that ends the fight or effectively finishes his opponent than you are a Foreman fight, but you're not going to see Marciano just come out and overwhelm his opponent with his power so that they look like they've been caught in a hurricane the way Foreman does.

So, if we were to ask, "Who has the better one-punch knockout power?" in the sense of actually being able to end a fight with one punch, I would say Marciano (at least up through the second Walcott fight), but in terms of who hit harder in the pure sense, I think Foreman has the advantage.

 

Agreed.

 

the 90's foreman nearly killed a few guys with some of the shots he threw.. ill never forget the shot that dropped cooney.. marciano needed to fully connect... the air from foremans swings would knock most men out..