who was the greatest welterweight puncher

[L.A. kidd]

for my money it was tommy hearns. ill never forget the 1st round against haggler. leonard never hurt haggler.

hearns did. sugar ray robinson was a great puncher, basilio was a great welter, but, not a great puncher. jose napoles

was a fine welterweight, but didn't hit like hearns. ill take tommy hearns for the best puncher.

[Othro]

for my money it was tommy hearns. ill never forget the 1st round against haggler. leonard never hurt haggler.

hearns did. sugar ray robinson was a great puncher, basilio was a great welter, but, not a great puncher. jose napoles

was a fine welterweight, but didn't hit like hearns. ill take tommy hearns for the best puncher.

I thought Hearns as soon as I read the title

[elmersalsa]

I cannot picture someone that hit harder than the great Thomas Hearns at ww.

Maybe Pipino Cuevas or Felix "Tito" Trinidad would give him a run for his money. Those three were some hard punching SOBs.

[dr_devious]

Hearns carried his power up the divisions, Tito did to an extent but Tommy knocked LHW titlist Dennis Andries down 10 times in their fight in 1987.

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Tommy Hearns was a 147lb killer & like others have said, he carried his power up 30lbs with ease.

He must arguably be the greatest p4p puncher when you take this into consideration.

[Tomasino]

Sam Langford or Bob Fitzsimmons P4P.

Agree that at welter Tommy is prob tops, although Ray Robinson hit plenty hard at the weight too.

[The Great John L]

Sam Langford or Bob Fitzsimmons P4P.

Agree that at welter Tommy is prob tops, although Ray Robinson hit plenty hard at the weight too.

Good shout on Langford. I was going to say Cuevas, but Sam had quite a few fights at WW and was one of the hardest punchers in history. I’m not sure Fitz had many fights at WW as most of the time he was fighting at 155 and above.

Clearly, Hearns and SRR are top guys also, as would be Tito and Walcott as well.

[Crease]

Jose Napoles is a MUST in this conversation.

[Syntax Error]

Sam Langford or Bob Fitzsimmons P4P.

Agree that at welter Tommy is prob tops, although Ray Robinson hit plenty hard at the weight too.

In fact, they're great shouts re: Langford & Fitzsimmons: they both carried their power far, further than Hearns did too.

[palooka]

Hearns could knock a chimney down, pure power and ferocious with it.

[Jpreisser]

Anyone think Mickey Walker qualifies?

[Tomasino]

Anyone think Mickey Walker qualifies?

He wasn't so much a one punch hitter as Hearns and Robinson, even though he had a lot of KOs he was outfought at Welterweight, he must have been one of the strongest and toughest of all time though.

Barbados Joe Walcott is another great shout.

[L.A. kidd]

Jose Napoles is a MUST in this conversation.

although napoles was a great fighter, he never possessed a the punch that hearns had, could napoles have hurt haggler?

napoles should have koed cokes, lopez, he just never had a great punch,

[L.A. kidd]

Anyone think Mickey Walker qualifies?

he very well may be rated very high, he went on to win the middleweight title, and came back and fought as a heavyweight.

he was knocked out by max schmelling. and he beat heavyweights, so he could be a number 2 maybe, still, even he never had the punch hearns had.

[Ambling Alp II]

For sheer power Hearns was probably #1. Robinson was probably #2. Leonard has to be up there.

[elmersalsa]

The great Sugar Ray Leonard was an underrated puncher. He can hit hard, too.

[Idisagree]

Robinson or Hearns.

Armstrong and Tito are up there too.