Boxers who improved punching power during their careers

[franciscojavier]

Sonny Liston’s record through his first 9 fights was 8-1 with only 2 KO’s, the rest of his career was 42-3 with 37 KO’s. I’m not sure if he started off as a “weak” puncher per se but I’m guessing at some point after he started fighting professionally he learned the techniques that made him the legend we think of him as today?

A modern day answer to this question would be Jermell Charlo at 154, he has a very low career knockout rate because almost all his early fights were decisions but he ends most of his title fights by knockout.

[AngryGoon38]

Wilfred Benitez.

That one punch lights out Ko over Maurice Hope in 1981 was Really Something.

SRL had his share of devastating Ko's, but never did he actually score a one punch Haymaker Ko.

I always feel like I'm a boxing fan who was cheated out of what would've been an extremely intriguing bout.
That being Hagler - Benitez.
Most boxing fans just automatically assume that it very likely would've simply been easy-work for Hagler.

I tend to imagine that it would've been at least a very difficult bout for Hagler, even if he ultimately had Wilfred's number.
Wilfred having Hagler's number and outboxing and outfoxing the Marvelous One, has Always seemed to be Overall, not a farfetched premise/possibility.

[goose 5]

Recently, I read an old interview with Ralph Citro and he spoke about how he turned Gaetan Hart into a puncher.