Do heavier modern heavyweights hit harder than lighter heavyweights from the 80's

[AlexKid]

So according to most boxing experts and pro boxers themselves, they would say the hardest punchers of all time are

1) Shavers (210)

2) Lyle (220)

3) George Foreman (220 - 226) when he fought lyle and ali so prime thats at his peak, he later when on to be 260 in his fight vs holy field


But where do guys like Tua, Wlad, the big modern old Foreman, and other punchers that are 240 plus where do they fit? Are they more powerful or less, can the 210 pound guys really hit harder?


Also a throw back would be Deontay whos sparking everyone out and hes light like the 80's heavyweight, he is also a point of consideration. (as is foreman who came from teh 80's fought in teh modern era fought light and heavy)


Did foreman hit harder as his heavy self or as his lighter self?

Does 20-30 pounds really matter much? Deontay seems to get by without it just fine. (211) pounds

[AlexKid]

256 pounds, makes the top 10 list for hard punchers often

220 pounds, looks harder to me than the shot from lewis

[AlexKid]

[Heavyhands420]

Id say its hard to determine. Shavers seems to be the hardest hitter of that era. Theres a ton of people that say wladimir hits the hardest as well so itd be interesting to know amongst people of elite status from different eras. I think shavers and klitschko are evenly matched. One throws straight punches and the throws shorts

[AlexKid]

I think 20-30 pound doesn't matter enough, I think there's a psychological bias here, ie our reptilian brain gets worked up by things like muscular bodies and muscle size, height and size alone, we are programmed by nature to do this (better to over estimate than to be sorry)

I think 40-50 pound matters , and Marciano and joe Louis are out of the question, I dont think Shavers and foreman are, i think they could well hit harder even at their weight and probably do hit harder than their modern counter parts, and certainly they would if they put on a few pounds say 10-20 pounds which some could do.

Foreman did infact put on lots of weight and hit harder than Tyson Lewis Bowe and Co according to Holyfeild etc

Its also not hard to imagine shaver's blasting people away now since deontay is doing the same thing at the same weight.

Also everyone said shavers hit harder than foreman and we can see what Foreman can do in the modern age of larger foe. These 80's guys really were the most powerful I think.

[QueensburyRules]

- -Shavers highly rated in his day, but save the Ali decision he shoulda won if not by stoppage when Ali was getting hammered the worst ever, ernie couldn't stop top opponents.

Modern super heavies hit heavier on average, and on that list the Kbros supreme.

[billeau2]

Ah little Alex!

Very hard to quantify the harder punches. Punching is a bit like horsepower in a car, its not necessarily the raw horsepower, but rather the torque that a car can generate and maintain that matters. I had an old BMW that was 180 horses and it kicked it!

Part to what contributes to the hardness of a punch is accuracy, speed, weight, the amount of relative tension in the body before and after the punch is realised, and timing. Yet, hitting with hard hands actually can be done with very little body dynamics. if one knows how to relax the body and target the area one is striking.

I bring this up because if we use, lets say Mike Tyson... or Dempsey, they hit hard because of speed, timing, accuracy and knowing how to tense/relax the body. On the other hand, George Foreman hit heavy... Most of his impact was due to relaxation and weight.

I would rephrase and ask someone who they most did not want to get hit by...you might get an interesting perspective.

[KingHippo]

Force of impact is all mass, energy, and acceleration.

Mike Tyson was one of the fiercest punchers because he had all three. A thick muscle structure and high bone density translates to mass, and great acceleration which derived from strenght/energy.

Deontay Wilder has very little mass, thin bone structure, but off the charts acceleration and energy.

Joe Joyce and George Foreman both have great mass and strength, but low velocity. Same with Golovkin. But they were all devastating punchers. Just not the lights out kind like Tyson.

[billeau2]

Force of impact is all mass, energy, and acceleration.

Mike Tyson was one of the fiercest punchers because he had all three. A thick muscle structure and high bone density translates to mass, and great acceleration which derived from strenght/energy.

Deontay Wilder has very little mass, thin bone structure, but off the charts acceleration and energy.

Joe Joyce and George Foreman both have great mass and strength, but low velocity. Same with Golovkin. But they were all devastating punchers. Just not the lights out kind like Tyson.

You know King Hippo, I never hold a grudge. Nice to see an excellent post here! Green K.

Bone density is often overlooked...It is one of those things that can make a heavyweight out of one guy who looks the same size as a smaller fighter. I think you are correct about Wilder...I know you are correct about Tyson.

[billeau2]

Another way to look at the elements of a punch is as levers: You have acceleration, Mass, and inertia...Why Inertia? Well energy has tendencies. When combined with mass it has the tendency to continue in the same direction unless a force equal or greater is applied.

Again, this is overlooked. Try an experiment, take a friend you train with and just practice walking through and swinging the arm naturally like a pendulum towards the training partner...When doing so, do not apply brakes, do not try to add force, just step through and let the arm start through at the top behind you...shoulder level. See how much force is just generated when you simply shape the fist on impact.

Fighters who punch with natural motion often have the best punching. A good guy to watch is Liston. He torques his body and lets his punch follow through from where ever he sets.

Another way to see how impact works is to stand straight, squared up and let your weight come towards your toes. See how fast you can get to somoene doing this compared to having to shift your weight fowards before you start to move forward.

Dempsey gets into a lot of these things when he has people practice the falling step to learn how to use inertia in their punching.