Harder hitter Deontay Wilder vs Earnie Shavers?

[MartialMind]

The sheer career KO% goes to Wilder but that's not always the whole story to determine the harder puncher. Who do you consider the harder hitter?

[DeeMoney]

Gonna ask for some clarity here.

I think Wilder's wild, overhand right, is probably the hardest punch consistently thrown in the history of boxing. The problem is, as indicated in my description of it, is that its a wild, out of control punch. I imagine a few other fighters, Foreman, Lewis, etc. could crow-hop into a punch that is just as devastating and probably harder, but they would never throw such a thing in an actual fight (its akin to taking a Happy Gilmore swing in golf).

That being written, I feel as if Shavers consistently landed harder punches than Wilder. He had a number of hooks and uppercuts that were scary and consistently landed; but no single one was as hard as Wilder's wild right. Moreover, I'd maybe put him in that list of guys mentioned earlier (Foreman, Lewis) who if given a free shot at a punching bag could generate more force than Wilder's max.

So, my question for clarification is two fold:

1) Are you referring to consistently landed, or just their best landed?
2) Are we asking for against a live top opponent, or free go at a punching bag/lesser opponent?

[Mburrell01]

Wilders power is overrated! He hasn’t finished anyone in the top 10. He couldn’t even knock out Fury hitting him cleanly followed by a left hook and Fury’s head bouncing off the canvas. Also looks like Wilder is back to fighting bums as his next fight is rumoured to be Carlos Negran.

[The Old LefHook]

Walter only knocked out scrubs.

[markusmod]

Wilders power is overrated! He hasn’t finished anyone in the top 10. He couldn’t even knock out Fury hitting him cleanly followed by a left hook and Fury’s head bouncing off the canvas. Also looks like Wilder is back to fighting bums as his next fight is rumoured to be Carlos Negran.

I don't think his power is overrated, but I do think he doesn't have enough skills and his chin is suspect.

[billeau2]

I don't know yet... My Jury is still deciding on this one. Sometimes spectacular punches distort reality. the same thing happened with Tyson who many felt was the legit hardest puncher. If we look at Wilder, his best knockdown was Fury. But... Fury was dropped by a hard punching cruiser. And Wilder has not Ko'ed any fighters at the top.

Im going to watch and see wilder the next few years or so, then we can compare him to some of the ****ers with precedent.

One observation: Wilder is more akin to Tyson in how he hits so hard. It is speed more than how the conventional hardest hitters hit. You have punchers like Louis, Dempsey, Bauer even Liston, who had speed of delivery. these guys were punchers, but not the absolute hardest hitters. Then you had guys like Foreman, Morrison, even Lewis who were more about weight behind the shots and were perhaps, harder hitters. Lyle and Shavers also represent this difference. Lyle was more along the lines of a puncher, using speed and weight together, while Shavers was all about heavy hands.

[markusmod]

I don't know yet... My Jury is still deciding on this one. Sometimes spectacular punches distort reality. the same thing happened with Tyson who many felt was the legit hardest puncher. If we look at Wilder, his best knockdown was Fury. But... Fury was dropped by a hard punching cruiser. And Wilder has not Ko'ed any fighters at the top.

Im going to watch and see wilder the next few years or so, then we can compare him to some of the ****ers with precedent.

One observation: Wilder is more akin to Tyson in how he hits so hard. It is speed more than how the conventional hardest hitters hit. You have punchers like Louis, Dempsey, Bauer even Liston, who had speed of delivery. these guys were punchers, but not the absolute hardest hitters. Then you had guys like Foreman, Morrison, even Lewis who were more about weight behind the shots and were perhaps, harder hitters. Lyle and Shavers also represent this difference. Lyle was more along the lines of a puncher, using speed and weight together, while Shavers was all about heavy hands.

What about his KOs of Ortiz?

[billeau2]

What about his KOs of Ortiz?

That was an interesting KO... His KO of the Haitian fighter was more spectacular. Ortiz left himself open, and his head got twisted with that shot. Wilder seemed to refelxively shoot the punch out there ad caught Ortiz in an ackward position. It might have been better than I thought, I did not replay it much, frankly I was a bit upset as I thought Tito was doing a spetacular job in that fight... he looked great! But a puncher is a puncher and when they land they can turn things around lol.

[GhostofDempsey]

Only way to know who truly hit harder would be from firsthand testimony of fighters who have been in the ring with both of them. There are no such fighters to my knowledge. The level of competition each man faced is light years apart. Ernie has been in the ring with top ten all-time HWs.

[Ben Bolt]

Shavers in a 2001 The Guardian interview:

"I always threw my punches at the guy's neck because, when he sees it coming, it's natural to duck and they drop their chin right on target. Bing."