Who was/is the hardest puncher of all time?

[rorymac]

Jim Wilde. Tom Hearns. Naz Hamed.

[Dylan Jake]

Forman ofcourse !! Shavers have heavy hands but when it comes to power George was gave a harder punch. He had two strong hands and one good blow could knock down huge men. Forman was always a better puncher and had a good chin..

[Verbal_Jab]

Will invariably come down to mostly heavyweights. Foreman is a good bet since his jab could move people across the ring. I think Ernie Shavers is a serious candidate. Tyson hit hard but was at his best with his combination punching. Single shot power? Shavers or Foreman. Wish the two had fought...

[jack p]

One thing about Foreman was he was so strong he could hit hard with just his arm strength..Even off balance he could knock a guy down..His jab wasn't
a light blow..Like Liston or Louis his jab was as hard as many guys right hand wallops...Somebody like Dempsey his power came through exploding his bodyweight against his opponent..So when he hit good it was like a 190lbs
dropping on you...But in terms of hitting hard at all angles with just the power of his arms Foreman gets the nod..Even Frazier said after losing his title Foreman just overpowered him..Even guys as big or heavy as George weren't as strong...But in terms of hitting hard with pin point accuracy ..crisp clean straight punces.Joe louis could drop a man like that...i bet if you could all these guys we talked about..
Take every punch they threw..and compare whether the punch landed where they intended it to land...The accuracy of the punch.. i think Louis was one of the most accurate punchers in the game..

[Mugwump]

Not picking on anyone in particular, but far, far too many boxing fans obsess with power.

It reminds me of the famous Spinal Tap scene with the volume knob dialled up to eleven. I mean, those guys were satirising LED Zeppelin and the cerebrally challenged "ROCK!!!!!" fans engaged in their amplifier arms race. It was a J-O-K-E.

Spin forwards twenty years and I swear people, instead of getting the joke, look on it as life coaching.

"Wanna prove you've made it? Slap fifty thousand dollars worth of precision designed audio electronics into your boot! Of course, you'll need three tons of soundproofing to hear benefits above the $200 model supplied with the car - but YOU'LL BE COOL!"

Obsessing with "power" is a mug's game. One of the first lessons any kid who thinks he can bang learns in a proper boxing gym is humility. An old-time trainer I knew used to delight in letting his experienced kids jab Tyson wannabees to death over two minutes.

Power is only the deciding factor in school yard brawls or bar fights. At elite, world, regional and even national levels there are any number of just plain average fighters who are to power punching what a fat kid is to an all-you-can-eat lunch.

At this point someone usually chirps up with "Yeah, well power certainly decided the Hearns-Duran fight or such and such". True. It was a monstrous shot. But what they fail to grasp is that EVERY shot Hearns threw that evening was a monstrous shot. Duran didn't crumple like an empty envelope because somewhere in the depths of Tommy's brain he thought - "Hmmm ... hitting Roberto with too many 5s and 6s. Better turn the dial to 11 next punch".

No, what made that punch the one Duran will never remember was something far more worthy of discussion than "POWARRR!" - timing.

But, I guess "Which fighter had the best TIMING?" just doesn't have the same ring to it as a thread title?