Who hit harder, George Foreman or Gerry Cooney?

"...with either hand ." It was the Foreman hook which rang Chuvalo's bell, leading to the stoppage, and George's hook also stunned Jimmy Young at the outset of round seven. A few years later, Gerry seemed utterly unable to dent Young with his vaunted hook, to either the body or the head, and needed his much less heralded right to tear open the fight winning cut. (By contrast, Shavers dropped Jimmy with his hook, in both their matches.) Can a persuasive case can be made that Cooney's hook was indeed harder than Foreman's?

 

Foreman. Easy.

 

I don't think Holyfield had him on ***** street, he unloaded on him a few times and the punches bothered George a bit, but I don't think he was hurt by them.

I don't think Lakusta rocked George, he caught him off balance with a decent shot when George was moving in for the kill after the first knockdown but that was about it. Foreman was a bit off balance, got caught, Ken went after him a bit but Foreman stayed right with him and knocked him out.

Foreman could definitely be hurt, I just haven't seen anyone other than Cooney rock Foreman like that with a single punch in Foreman's comeback.

 

Watch the 9th round of Holyfield-Foreman. Holyfield nails Foreman on the jaw with a picture-perfect straight right hand near the rounds end. Foreman's body slumps, he drops his head, and he pitches forward into the ropes. Holyfield is all over George when the bell rings. It was one single punch that hurt George. In the 3rd round, Holyfield hurt George with a left hook and then rained punches down on him. Foreman was staggering at the bell. Holyfield, especially in 1991, was not a big puncher!

 

Just rewatched the two rounds, and Holyfield did stun George in the 3rd, but it was not from a single punch. It was from the barrage of punches and I don't think Foreman could really see punches because the first one caught him by surprise and he was having issues gathering himself.

You were right about the 9th round though. Evander did rock George with that single right hand. It was a helluva punch and would have dropped and even probably knocked out many other fighters who did not have the chin of Foreman.

 

The thing is Holyfield was a sharp puncher. He didn't hit as hard as say Ray Mercer, but his sharp punching and speed are what made him deadly. Also his accuracy. He was able to get through Foreman's big arms, and make his punching effective. Then if you look at a guy like Briggs who couldn't stun Foreman at all, it was because he wasn't sharp as Holyfield, even though I think he hit harder.

 

That is very true, I know from my own experience from boxing that the sharp punchers bothered me much more than more dull, but hard punchers.