ali was 31-0 25 ko's before his boxing exile

[Bushidō]

He didn't have destructive power but that didn't mean he couldnt stop people

[TheGreatA]

wrong.
watch the first fight again how scared cooper was in round 5

Watch the Patterson fight and see how flat Cooper was.

Cooper didn't seem scared, he just suffered a terrible, terrible cut, one of the worst ever. He wanted to fight on despite it.

[GJC]

A lot of people began to question his punching power after his performances against Chuvalo, Terrell, Patterson and Mildenberger, sarcastically asking him how he was ever able to "KO" Liston when he had trouble getting rid of these opponents.

To be fair no one can knock out Chuvalo, he was inhuman. Ali seemed quite content to torture Patterson and Terrell for 15 rounds and had little interest in knocking them out.

[sonnyboyx2]

To be fair no one can knock out Chuvalo, he was inhuman. Ali seemed quite content to torture Patterson and Terrell for 15 rounds and had little interest in knocking them out.

yes you are quite correct

[TheGreatA]

To be fair no one can knock out Chuvalo, he was inhuman. Ali seemed quite content to torture Patterson and Terrell for 15 rounds and had little interest in knocking them out.

I don't really agree with Ali only "torturing" them to be honest. He hit both of them with some of his best punches but couldn't put them away. Now Chuvalo was granite-jawed indeed but he basically walked right through the hundreds of punches Ali threw and laughed them off. It shows that Ali was certainly not on the level of Foreman, Frazier or Bonavena as a puncher.

This is the supposedly glass-jawed Floyd Patterson taking everything Ali has got:

[Boxing_12]

To be fair no one can knock out Chuvalo, he was inhuman. Ali seemed quite content to torture Patterson and Terrell for 15 rounds and had little interest in knocking them out.

agree there, how can you question someone's punching power just because they didn't knock out Chuvalo. That is just damn silly.

[Princemanspopa]

Ali carrying Terrell and Patterson is somewhat overblown,he punished them but who's to say he wasn't trying to finish them? He certainly threw punches with intention against both men but both men showed tremendous heart and would not be finished.Ali,I don't believe ever said anything about wanting to carry and punish them,just a myth really

Ali was no better a puncher than for example Floyd Patterson though. Ali never quite was able to hurt Henry Cooper, only cut him, while Patterson flattened Cooper in four rounds.

Since when was Floyd Patterson a powderpuff puncher? Floyd had power and was definitately a better puncher than Ali

or Bonavena as a puncher.

First time I've ever heard any refer to Oscar Bonavena as a puncher? heavy handed sure,but big puncher?

[TheGreatA]

Ali carrying Terrell and Patterson is somewhat overblown,he punished them but who's to say he wasn't trying to finish them? He certainly threw punches with intention against both men but both men showed tremendous heart and would not be finished.Ali,I don't believe ever said anything about wanting to carry and punish them,just a myth really

Since when was Floyd Patterson a powderpuff puncher? Floyd had power and was definitately a better puncher than Ali

First time I've ever heard any refer to Oscar Bonavena as a puncher? heavy handed sure,but big puncher?

You are taking those quotes slightly out of context.

I didn't claim that Patterson was a powderpuff puncher, I was comparing his punching prowess to that of Ali's. As an example Patterson KO'd Cooper in devastating fashion while Ali could only stop him on cuts. Patterson in my view is a better puncher than Ali.

Neither did I claim that Bonavena was a big, Foreman type of a puncher. What I was saying is that while Bonavena, Frazier and Foreman were all able to hurt Chuvalo, Ali couldn't even move him in two of their fights and he landed his best stuff.

Bonavena arguably had Chuvalo down and certainly hurt in two of the rounds.

Charley Goldman did claim that Bonavena hit harder than the other heavyweight he trained, Rocky Marciano.

The point I'm trying to make is that there were a lot of people who punched harder than Ali, even in his own time. He was an effective puncher though who could cut people and catch them with punches they didn't see coming.

[NakiFan]

Check out 6:06

[TheGreatA]

Check out 6:06

5:10