BoxRec

this isnt hardest hitters, so im not judging based soely on one punch power, its overall punching ability


1. joe louis
2. mike tyson
3. sonny liston
4. jack dempsey
5. rocky marciano
6. george foreman
7. lennox lewis
8. joe frazier
9. max baer
10. earnie shavers
11. james jeffries
12. bob fitzimmons
13. Sam Langford
14. Elmer Ray
15. Ingemar Johannsen
16. Bob Satterfield
17. Cleveland Williams
18. David Tua
19. Tommy Morrsion
20. Gerry Cooney
21. Razor Ruddock
22. George Godfrey
23. Tom Sharkey
24. Harry Wills
25. Evander Holyfield


top 25 hardest hitters (heavyweights)

1. Mike Tyson
2. Sonny Liston
3. Earnie Shavers
4. George Foreman
5. rocky Marciano
6. Joe louis
7. Joe frazier
8. Jack Dempsey
9. Max Baer
10. lennox Lewis
11. Bob Satterfield
12. James Jeffries
13. bob fitzimmons
14. Razor Ruddock
15. David Tua
16. Gerry Cooney
17. Elmer Ray
18. Ingemar Johannsen
19 Tommy morrison
20 Cleveland Williams
21 john L Sullivan
22 Luis firpo
23 Floyd Patterson
24 Henry Cooper
25 Jersey joe Walcott

very hard to do, this is a preliminary list i just wanted to throw it out there

Shavers shot for shot def. hit harder then Tyson. Tyson hit hard but it was more his explosive quickness which got him knockouts. Shavers could hit you with a slow punch coming from a mile away and it'd shake you to the bone. My top ten hardest hitters (nothing to do with technical precision) would be:

1) Earnie Shavers
2) George Foreman
3) Sonny Liston
4) Joe Louis
5) Max Baer
6) Mike Tyson
7) Cleveland Williams
8) Lennox Lewis
9) Ron Lyle
10) David Tua

Patterson is on your hardest hitters, but not on your best hitters list?

If Patterson is #23 on your hitters list, he ought to be #15 atleast on your best punchers list. Looking at your current list, I would place him at #9, and move everyone else down a notch.

Patterson's blazing combos had devastating effects. His opponents dropped similar to Joe Louis' opponents... Like a sack of potatoes... Mashed potatoes.

rocky marcianos right hand was one of the hardesst punchers ever, he defintely belongs on that list. louis was a bette rpouncher than rocky, but rock hit hrder with one punch.

rocky of 51,52,53 was a slugger then changed his style to enable him to become a better boxer and shorten his punches and grind u down and he lost some power.


marciaano vs layne, louis, lastarza, walcott jut look at thoe right hands




dempsey should be on there defintely too



willaims, tua, shouldnt be on the list. who did williams ever knockout that was a great fighter? besides terrell who won the rematch.

It's not about who they knocked out. Tua never knocked out anyone known to be durable but he's recognized as a monster puncher. I look at the film and the torque of those shots on film. Marciano has that bone crunching grinding power but he wasn't really a one shot guy. Walcott would've never taken as many flush shots from Liston, Baer, Shavers etc. as he did vs Rocky in their first fight.

Williams was feared by EVERYONE in the late 1950s gyms. He had a hard time getting decent sparring.

dempsey rocky was a one punch guy from his first fight -lastrza I. then his style changed a little.


rocky knocked out walcott unconcius with one right hand!!! that was possibly the hardest punch of all time

marcino knocked out harry kid mathews with 2 left hooks, only time mathews was ever knocked out in his 100 fight career

- rocky knocked lastarza down in the 1st fight with a right and roland was saved by the bell

rocky knocked out walcott in the remaatch with a right hand again

rocky sheered laynes front teeth of at the nubs with one right haand, the same layne who tooks bob saatterfields best punches


marcino knocked out all his eealery opponents with his right hand.


rocky knocked out bernie renyolds with a right hand that goldman described "reynolds floated horizontly in the air with his feet and shoulders touching at the same time".


marciano knocked out carmine vingo into a coma with one left hook

marciano hit louis so hard with that right hand it looked like louis was dead

marciano had many KOs that werent even on tape that were devatsating one punch KOs

marcianos right hand was arguebly as good as anyones in history






dempsey shattered willards jaw in the biggest beating in history. he did so much damge and hit so hard they though dempsey put cement in his gloves . he knocked out carpentier and firpo out cold, and nearly knocked out great chinned tunney when past his prime. dempsey knocked out carl morris and fred fulton with only a couple punches.



both IMO hit harder than williams, lewis, tua, frazier

but i understand ur point.


most people who fought rocky and louis in sprring or real fight, said maarciano hit harder with one punch than louis but louis was better with combinations.

even a past his prime langford knocked wills out cold with a left hook

I would take out Henry Cooper, Ingemar Johansson, Gerry Cooney, Tom Sharkey, Harry Wills, Evander Holyfield, "Jersey" Joe Walcott and probably Luis Firpo.

ADD:
Tommy Gomez (Scored a lot of clean knockouts, some against quality fighters that had never been put out, a brutal puncher with either hand)

Peter Maher (Maher was P4P one of the hardest hitters ever at any weight, the template of brutal hitters with a china chin!)

Sam McVey (Was the hardest puncher of the great black heavyweights of the era)

Tommy Burns (Small, but scored what, nine knockouts in 10 heavyweight title defenses)


There was also guys like Bill Brennan, Fred Fulton, Charley Retzlaff, Hans Breitensträter, Isadore Gastanaga, Pat Comsikey, Mac Foster, Lem Franklin and several others that I cannot think of right now.

By the way, Wills was not the second most feared puncher besides Dempsey...Langford was much more feared as a puncher than Wills was!

Would have James"Bonecrusher"Smith top five. Mike Weaver somewhere top twenty five. Also Ali, very underated puncher, although a lot of his knockouts came from combinations.

Tyson (KO'ed Holmes and Spinks two guys who were never KO'ed)
Foreman
Louis
Shavers
Marciano

Purely for one punch power, it has to be Foreman, with Tyson or Shavers in 2nd. For combination power and accuracy I'd say Tyson or Louis....if they were to hit a machine with their one single hardest shot, I'd say George would exert the most force. Think of it like Rocky IV, When Drago demonstrates how much pressure/force he can exert from one punch. I think Foreman would register the highest in a similar test

langford was the more feared puncher of that time only 2nd to dempsey and that was when langford was past his prime!!!!!

walshb, I agree with urinalysis.

Honestly I think when it comes to one punch power it's Foreman, You can see it by how he knocks people down. He would sometimes "sweep" them down with a single punch. He didnt' even half to be that accurate to really hurt someone. I have never seen anything quite like his pure punching ability.

I liked the way Foreman wound up when throwing a punch. It made the punch that much harder because he would get everything into it. Plus he was enormously strong. One of the reasons he didn't have to be accurate was he hit so hard that even if he hit a man on the shoulder or the arms the force of the blow would open him up. Another thing he would do is when the opponent tried to get in close Foreman would push him back and before the guy could reset himself George would hit him. Sometimes he would push so hard the man would go down before George had a chance to swing. I have seen hime get warned for that.

Athough not synomomous with the big punch Ali could hit hard when he planted his feet. However most of the time he chose to stick and move or hit with combinations. Most of the time he didn't see the need to trade heavy leather. But if anyone saw the Bonavena fight Ali nailed him with a wicked left hook that eventually led to the knockout. Even the most ardent Ali detractors would have had to have taken notice. What was impressive is that it was a short left hook where he generated his power with velocity and leverage.

BoxBuzz wrote:walshb, I agree with urinalysis.

:P :x

yeah but foreman never knocked people out cold cause he lacked the snap in his punch like louis, marciano, tyson, dempsy

headbasher watch foremans fights, he didnt put people down for the count in most case or out cold, he had brute force power but didnt have snap KO 'put out ur lights" power like louis did to braddock and b. baer, marciano to walcott and layne. im not saying foremaan had less power, he had a different kind of power

Let's not forget that Foreman was also damn accurate for such a big hitter. If you watch against Frazier, it is simply amazing how many shots he lands...pure controlled power. That was more than just a display of power, it had everything, timing, accuracy, speed and frequency. Also the KO he gave Cooney was devestating, that was an example of George simply putting a guy to sleep with the one punch. Very good point about him hitting a fighters arms, this really affects the guy and leaves him open.

>>>if they were to hit a machine with their one single hardest shot, I'd say George would exert the most force.<<<


I've mentioned this on a couple of occasion, but what the hell...why not again. Back in the early 1900s, Jim Jeffries, Bob Fitzsimmons and Sam McVey all had their punching power measured on a machine. Just guessing I would have picked Fitzsimmons as the hardest hitter of the three, but he came in last, Jeffries was second and Sam McVey had the most force in his punches between the three!

A great list. Some great boxers on there. Must have taken some time. What I would say though is Lewis had a monster punch and he was one of the best finishers. Once he had you that was it. He was rarely taken the distance. Although Tyson was a big hitter he struggles against big guys with a bit of abitlity. I think his KO % was lower than Lewis's

It does seem to be that people are using different criteria. It seems some people are considering accurracy, the sheer amount of punches, finishing ability, as well as one punch power. Others are only using some of these factors.

One guy I wonder about is Bob Satterfield. Occasionally I will see someone lsit him as one of the best punchers and I don't see why.
He only scored KO's in 35 of 79 fights. That nothing special at all. Very few the Ko's that he did score were against anyone of note.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:, its overall punching ability

what exactly do you mean by punching abilty? combinations? speed? speed & power?
i would rate Muhammad Ali pretty high in all of thoses araes.

my hardest punchers

1. Marciano
2. Foreman
3. Liston
4. Louis
5. Tyson
6. Baer
7. Tua
8. Lewis
9. Dempsey

i dont know about no 10