tyson hardest puncher in history?

[nomadman]

Ernie Shavers



/ close thread

/open thread again.



What's so special about Shavers's power? What are his two best one punch knockouts?

[Jambo boy]

There was a study or something around the time of Tyson - Bruno II that said that Bruno had a harder punch than Tyson. I have no evidence to support this but I remember them setting up a machine that replicated Bruno's punching power on a plastic head and it smashed it to bits.
So if you've got plastic head, don't fight Frank Bruno.

[nomadman]

the klitschko brothers hit the hardest

especially vitali- he's 6'8 and he has good technique on the right

yes its all jab jab jab punch

but it works

This is laughable. Vitali is nowhere near as hard a puncher as his brother and nowhere near the hardest puncher of all time. Why couldn't he knock out Briggs like Wilson did? Why couldn't he knock out Sanders like Tubbs did? Why couldn't he even knock down Arreola like Walker did? All these guys he was hitting as flush as you like with punch after punch after punch so it's not like I've picked deceptive fights here. Yes, he stopped two of the three I mentioned above, but he never dropped them to the canvas. One punch knockout power? Hardly.

i think tyson's combinations caused alot of problems but i dont think he hit especially hard himself- it was more of a combination of hits rather then RAW KO power

Here's another one of those irritating myths surrounding Tyson: that he was a combination puncher not a one punch knockout artist. Did he throw wicked combinations in his prime? Course he did. He also clocked tons of guys with one shot. More than Vitali, Foreman and Shavers did at any rate.

and yes bowe hit harder than tyson- he is also higher on the ATG list- 2nd to lewis from that era

Bowe wasn't able to put Golota away in two goes, and he caught him flush plenty of times. He took an age to put away Herbie Hide who kept rising from the canvas to take more punishment. About the only argument you could make regarding Bowe's punching power is the Evander Trilogy, but Evander's demise in the third fight was as much about his own poor conditioning than it was Bowe's punches.

[Medved]

/open thread again.



What's so special about Shavers's power? What are his two best one punch knockouts?

I dont get it either, if you look at his resume, he has a bunch of decision wins and loses to guys with just horrible records who were KO'd before he fought them.

for a guy with so much power he sure didnt use it wisely.

and how are we judging power?

Some fighters like Tyson use all their power on virtually every punch and jump into it.

Other fighters go slow and steady increase speed and strenght as the fight goes on.

Do people realize that HW guys dont punch at 100% during the fight? They will be left wide open to counters and would tire themselves out and make them weak.

I doubt that they even punch at 85-90% of their maximum punch power during a HW fight except maybe a few fighters like Tyson who could do 95-100% Power for 10 punches.


and the hardest puncher? Well according to a 90 year old man during the golden age of boxing was da greatest puncher on earth, of course we dont have any video proof or any technical info. and it doesnt matter that he fought in a era with a low level of competition he was still the hardest puncher!"

Remember folks, if you say it enough times then it must be true (see Religions).

[Medved]

This is laughable. Vitali is nowhere near as hard a puncher as his brother and nowhere near the hardest puncher of all time. Why couldn't he knock out Briggs like Wilson did? Why couldn't he knock out Sanders like Tubbs did? Why couldn't he even knock down Arreola like Walker did? All these guys he was hitting as flush as you like with punch after punch after punch so it's not like I've picked deceptive fights here. Yes, he stopped two of the three I mentioned above, but he never dropped them to the canvas. One punch knockout power? Hardly.



Here's another one of those irritating myths surrounding Tyson: that he was a combination puncher not a one punch knockout artist. Did he throw wicked combinations in his prime? Course he did. He also clocked tons of guys with one shot. More than Vitali, Foreman and Shavers did at any rate.



Bowe wasn't able to put Golota away in two goes, and he caught him flush plenty of times. He took an age to put away Herbie Hide who kept rising from the canvas to take more punishment. About the only argument you could make regarding Bowe's punching power is the Evander Trilogy, but Evander's demise in the third fight was as much about his own poor conditioning than it was Bowe's punches.

I dont think you realize how Boxing works. Just because a Boxer KO's one guy, doesnt mean he is a stronger puncher than another.

or do you think that Boxers punch at 100% of their max output? or should he blow his load with 10 100% punches and gas out?

SO by your thoughts since Prescott beat Khan and Khan beat Maidana that means Prescott > Khan > Maidana? Cuz you know like Prescott was able to do it, and Maidana was not.

[nomadman]

There was a study or something around the time of Tyson - Bruno II that said that Bruno had a harder punch than Tyson. I have no evidence to support this but I remember them setting up a machine that replicated Bruno's punching power on a plastic head and it smashed it to bits.
So if you've got plastic head, don't fight Frank Bruno.

Bruno was a very powerful puncher so I'm not surprised if that's the case. Still I'm always a little wary of these so-called scientific tests they sometimes do on fighters. They're far from rigorously monitored and usually performed by amateurs.

[tennis-legend]

Vitali is nowhere near as hard a puncher as his brother and nowhere near the hardest puncher of all time. Why couldn't he knock out Briggs like Wilson did? Why couldn't he knock out Sanders like Tubbs did? Why couldn't he even knock down Arreola like Walker did? All these guys he was hitting as flush as you like with punch after punch after punch so it's not like I've picked deceptive fights here. Yes, he stopped two of the three I mentioned above, but he never dropped them to the canvas. One punch knockout power? Hardly.

vitali is the only man to stop ross purrity- who did indeed have an iron chin




Here's another one of those irritating myths surrounding Tyson: that he was a combination puncher not a one punch knockout artist. Did he throw wicked combinations in his prime? Course he did. He also clocked tons of guys with one shot. More than Vitali, Foreman and Shavers did at any rate.

here's another interesting myth- the tyson 1 punch ko
tyson started throwing 1 pounch knock outs when he started to decline
yes it did land sometimes but most observes saw a tyson loss coming a long time before tokyo- it was because tyson stop throwing his combinations- at his prime he DID throw combinations- and thats what made him so effective



Bowe wasn't able to put Golota away in two goes, and he caught him flush plenty of times. He took an age to put away Herbie Hide who kept rising from the canvas to take more punishment. About the only argument you could make regarding Bowe's punching power is the Evander Trilogy, but Evander's demise in the third fight was as much about his own poor conditioning than it was Bowe's punches.

bowe has 43 wins with 33 KOs
lewis couldn't KO holyfield- neither could tyson but bowe did- no one else KO hoyfield untill 2003
when he fought golota- golota had a perfect record

[CubanGuyNYC]

No, but his power of late gets horribly underrated by a lot of boxing fans, perhaps as a backlash against his rabid delusional fanboys from back in the day. He had phenomenal one punch knockout and knockdown ability, more than Foreman, more than Shavers (who only has one bonafide one punch KO in his career yet is somehow always brought up as an hellacious KO puncher), and certainly more than someone like Max Baer. This isn't an opinion that can't be backed up without a large body of evidence. The fights are there for all to see.

Did he have more brute strength than someone like Foreman? No, I don't think so. But he had the speed, explosiveness, technique and squat muscular body that, when everything came together, was capable of delivering thunderous blows that could break bones and knock fighters stone cold. When evaluating power punchers you've got to look at the whole package, not just one aspect. Foreman could deliver more consistently damaging shots throughout the course of a fight, but I've never seen him land as many devastating single shots as Tyson.

As examples, look at the Golota or Botha fights and see how Tyson's just drops them with one punch, knocking Botha loopy and forcing Golota to quit, breaking his cheekbone and damaging his vertebrae in the process. If that isn't one punch power I don't know what is. And whilst both Botha and Golota were stopped in similar fashion by Lewis, it took him multiple punches to achieve. And this is Lennox Lewis we're talking about, an extremely hard puncher in his own right.

Tyson is also the only man to ever knock out Holmes, and he started it with a very similar punch to the one Shavers landed. Yet whilst the Shavers knockdown is lauded and endlessly brought up as evidence of what a sick puncher he was, the Tyson knockout is glossed over with excuses about Holmes age and eroded physical abilities, despite the fact that he went on to fight until well into the nineties, facing the likes of McCall, Mercer and Holyfield. This is one of the examples of the irritating double standard that many people adopt when talking about Tyson.

Of course, several of Tyson's flaws were legit. His power tended to markedly diminish if he couldn't get full leverage on his shots and his poor stamina also had a detrimental effect in the later rounds, since such a large percentage of his power came from the legs and hips. But I can't think of too many fighters whom I would undoubtedly say had greater one punch power than Tyson. Tua is about the only one.

Great post, man.

Force = Mass x Acceleration. I'm no scientist, but I think this formula helps to explain why a relatively small heavyweight like Mike Tyson might generate greater force than much larger men.

Tyson was one of the fastest all-time heavyweights. He was able to put the weight of his body into motion with greater speed than most. It doesn't take too many tapes to realize that Tyson delivered his most crushing blows from the ground up. He was able to coil and drive from his legs and hips very quickly. It was almost frightening to watch him unload a power-punch, even when he missed. You could just feel the wind.

While many other "big punchers" relied on their greater mass, few (if any) could put their heft into motion as quickly as Tyson. If George Foreman could do it, he would've been killing people. Instead, a guy like George would be swinging at air. Tyson landed...with devastating effect.

[nomadman]

I dont think you realize how Boxing works. Just because a Boxer KO's one guy, doesnt mean he is a stronger puncher than another.

or do you think that Boxers punch at 100% of their max output? or should he blow his load with 10 100% punches and gas out?

SO by your thoughts since Prescott beat Khan and Khan beat Maidana that means Prescott > Khan > Maidana? Cuz you know like Prescott was able to do it, and Maidana was not.

I'm well aware of how boxing works. I could have easily said something like, "Why didn't Vitali knock out glass-chinned Lennox when Rahman and McCall did?" or something equally ******ed. I didn't because I'm well aware that in that particular case Lennox didn't give him the chance to capitalise on his second round flurry, and blocked and deflected a good deal of his later punches whilst landing his own. Against Sanders, Briggs and Arreola Vitali was basically fighting three heavy bags whom, yes, he could load up every punch on without real fear of retalitation. And it was clear he was doing just that. The fact that he wasn't able to put any of them down at least once has to call into serious question his punching power.

Your triangle example has no relevance to my above post.

[CubanGuyNYC]

Some fighters like Tyson use all their power on virtually every punch and jump into it.

Other fighters go slow and steady increase speed and strenght as the fight goes on.

Do people realize that HW guys dont punch at 100% during the fight? They will be left wide open to counters and would tire themselves out and make them weak.

I doubt that they even punch at 85-90% of their maximum punch power during a HW fight except maybe a few fighters like Tyson who could do 95-100% Power for 10 punches.

These are valid statements. I think they go a long way towards explaining Tyson's power versus his peers. Also, in his prime, Tyson could deliver his "100%" shots with greater accuracy than most; and he could recover more quickly when he missed. That's why the KOs were more likely to come early. If the fight wore on, Tyson's ability to engage his muscles with enough speed would naturally be diminished.