Boxers who improved punching power during their careers

[Lenny Cravats]

Herol Graham had a dramatic turnaround in KO%.

In his first 22 wins, he only had 6 KO's

Over his next 22 wins, he had 21 KO's.

[Lenny Cravats]

Herol Graham had a dramatic turnaround in KO%.

In his first 22 wins, he only had 6 KO's

Over his next 22 wins, he had 21 KO's.

[margaret thatcher]

good call

[bennie]

Boxing News tipped Cardiff's Pat Thomas to beat an unbeaten Graham for the British light-middleweight title back in March 1981 - even in Sheffield. Graham failed to stop Thomas but he won massively on the scorecard of referee Sid Nathan and later picked up the European title with a two-round knockout of the globetrotting Clement Tshinza. For me, Herol really came into his own at middleweight where he smashed his way into the world rankings with a succession of stoppage wins over the likes of Ayub Kalule, Lindell Holmes, Mark Kaylor, Charlie Boston and James Cook.
Sumbu Kalambay, however, proved a different proposition.

[jezzamundo]

Tyson Fury is a good call - he's been sitting on his punches a lot more since partnering with Sugar Hill Steward.

[Counter-puncher]

Herol Graham had a dramatic turnaround in KO%.

In his first 22 wins, he only had 6 KO's

Over his next 22 wins, he had 21 KO's.

[Bandog]

Pacquiao was one, until PED testing, then he only had about one KO in 8-10 years. And yes, he never failed a test.

[Bard of Boxrec]

Junior witter

[thomasjkelley]

Sergio Martinez

[bollocks]

Michael Nunn may qualify here. His 1 punch KO of Sumbu Kalambay especially, was something else

[Enlightened-One]

Michael Nunn may qualify here. His 1 punch KO of Sumbu Kalambay especially, was something else

The vast majority of Nunn’s KO victories were scored during the early stages of his career.

He’s the polar opposite of what’s being asked for.

[mcrow24]

I think a lot of the top guys known for their power did improve prior to peaking.

Most of the time it's not so much the power that changed but they've improved angles, precision, and are smarter fighters, and are able to ID opening better.

[armageto]

Jermell Charlo, for a current fighter. Almost half pf his career KO's have come in his last 10 fights, versus improved competition as well.

[Counter-puncher]

Hasegawa had twice as many ko’s in the second half of his career than he had in the first half

[lazboy]

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd absolutely demolished Tenshin - unbelievable show of power the likes of which we have never seen from Mayweather.

[gregor]

Hearns.

He won 155 amateur fights, with only 11 KOs.

[Enlightened-One]

Herol Graham had a dramatic turnaround in KO%.

In his first 22 wins, he only had 6 KO's

Over his next 22 wins, he had 21 KO's.

To be fair, back in the day, effective aggression was far greatly rewarded by the judges than elusive counter-punching (effective defence), especially in title fights.

Herol ‘Bomber’ Graham explained immediately prior to the McCallum bout that he’d have to change his style to stand any chance of gaining a decision against the American.

During the first round, he completely out-boxed and embarrassed McCallum, but then chose to mostly stand his ground (not his natural fighting style) for the remainder of the bout.

Anyway, the majority of Graham’s bouts for the remainder of his career (spanning 32 contests) were title fights, meaning he had to plant his feet more frequently and be more aggressive (if his opponents weren’t already badly fatigued due to missing so many shots).

Graham had to change his style and become more aggressive, when he took a step up in class, mainly due to the judges' scoring criteria.

So I don’t think Herol really became more heavy-handed, it was more of an intentional stylistic change to curry favour with the judges.

If Herol was around today, he probably wouldn’t have needed to change his natural fighting style, because the judges scoring criteria has seemingly evolved.

I think we experienced a similar phenomenon with Johnny Nelson, who was a member of the same Brendan Ingle gym as Herol, because he initially kept losing and going the distance (with his style being very reminiscent of Graham’s), but then eventually he adapted, becoming more aggressive, in order to win more fights (scoring more stoppages).

If you compare Johnny Nelson’s bloody awful draw against Carlos De Leon (a fight I thought he won, despite being gruellingly unpleasant to watch) to his performance in the Carl Thompson bout, you’ll surely appreciate his stylistic change.

[SportsRatings]

At the time the Barcelona football team players were each covering about a mile per game more than their opposite numbers. Thats, EACH. Yeah, like they had that much better a ‘strength and conditioning regime’ than everyone else

They probably hired a nutritionist too.

[SportsRatings]

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd absolutely demolished Tenshin - unbelievable show of power the likes of which we have never seen from Mayweather.

100% KO rate of tiny Japanese kickboxers and MMA fighters making their boxing debut

[Counter-puncher]

At the time the Barcelona football team players were each covering about a mile per game more than their opposite numbers. Thats, EACH. Yeah, like they had that much better a ‘strength and conditioning regime’ than everyone else

They probably hired a nutritionist too.

yes they no doubt had an excellent 'nutritionist'

[Redback Rasta]

Tim Tszyu.

[The Gratest]

Bless you.

[jamesmcdonnell]

Don't think PEDs influence punch power, if they did we'd be getting knockouts every fight lol

they do mate as peds will help you recover quicker, so you can train more put more muscle so will be heavier,

Punchpower isn't really about big muscles though, it's about balance and timing being able to transfer momentum.

[Jaywheel]

Bless you.

[franciscojavier]

Benny Leonard, as per Mannie Seamon's statements in Fried's great book about trainers.

He’s a very good example of how you can’t really do statistics for old school fighters because his large number of nd/newspaper fights makes his KO rate look way lower than it actually was. But then I read more about him and his biggest title fights, and it’s very apparent that he was considered a big puncher at his best.