the hardest heavyweight puncher?

[IronMike19]

foreman or shavers?

[Silencers]

Foreman was the hardest puncher in history IMO.

[The Iron Man]

I would go with Shavers

[TheGreatA]

Both had similar KO ratio's: Foreman 76 wins, 68 KO's, Shavers 74 wins, 68 KO's. Both Foreman and Shavers had most of those decisions when they were older.

Foreman won 24 fights in a row by KO, Shavers won 27 by KO, Foreman beat much better opposition during that KO streak (which was ended by Ali), Shavers KO'd many in the first round.

Notable opposition KO'd:
Shavers KO'd/TKO'd Jimmy Young, Jimmy Ellis, Roy Williams, Ken Norton, Joe Bugner
Foreman KO'd/TKO'd George Chuvalo, Gregorio Peralta, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Ron Lyle, Dwight Qawi, Gerry Cooney, Michael Moorer

Comparable opposition:
Ted Gullick: Shavers KO6, Foreman KO2
Ken Norton: Shavers KO1, Foreman KO2
Ron Lyle: TKO'd Shavers in 6, Foreman KO5, both were dropped by Lyle but Foreman showed heart by getting up from the canvas twice to KO Lyle.
Jimmy Young: Shavers TKO3, draw, beat Foreman by UD
Muhammad Ali: beat Shavers by UD, beat Foreman by KO8

Foreman was obviously the better fighter with an amateur background, better technique, a powerful jab, an iron chin, strenght, finishing skills and more stamina. He was also taller and heavier than Shavers.

Shavers didn't have much more than his power, his fight against Ali was his best because he kept his composure and showed better conditioning by going twelve rounds.

Both Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes said Shavers was the hardest hitter they ever faced.


Shavers' overhand right against Holmes is one of the hardest ever thrown (02:18).


Shavers KO's Ellis


Shavers KO's Norton


Foreman KO's Frazier, Norton, Lyle, Cooney, Moorer

My conclusion: Both hit pretty f***ing hard.

[IronMike19]

oh ****!

wow, i wonder how the hell holmes found the heart and the desire to get up from that murderous right hand.

[merjohn32]

oh ****!

wow, i wonder how the hell holmes found the heart and the desire to get up from that murderous right hand.

I remember reading an article that quoted Shaver saying that hitting that punch was like being in heaven. But then Holmes got up.

[IronMike19]

....

[Basim]

Holmes must of had God on his side to dodge the 2nd right.

[catskills23]

i will probably will get pillored for this but i think tyson was the hardest puncher. Aparrently when tyson sparred frank bruno when he was 16 . Bruno and tyson both took a psi test and bruno was found to only hit marginally harder than tyson . i think tyson scored 2300 psi and bruno scored 2500 psi . Bruno was also 5 years older than tyson and had a 30 pound weight advantage . So i would say that it would be safe to say that when tyson was in his 20's he would of hit a lot harder than bruno . Bruno i would consider to be one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history . James tillis who fought tyson and shavers said tyson hit harder . Alex stewart and Steve zouski who fought foreman and tyson said tyson hit harder than foreman . Of course others who have fought tyson , shavers and foreman have said that shavers and foreman hit harder than tyson I dont put much emphasis on who fighters say hit them the hardest anyway . There chin is hardly a punch psi measuring device. Anyway there is no way to know who hit harder than who we can only form an opinion . Its a topic that could be debted forever and we would still be none the wiser.

[TheGreatA]

i will probably will get pillored for this but i think tyson was the hardest puncher. Aparrently when tyson sparred frank bruno when he was 16 . Bruno and tyson both took a psi test and bruno was found to only hit marginally harder than tyson . i think tyson scored 2300 psi and bruno scored 2500 psi . Bruno was also 5 years older than tyson and had a 30 pound weight advantage . So i would say that it would be safe to say that when tyson was in his 20's he would of hit a lot harder than bruno . Bruno i would consider to be one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history . James tillis who fought tyson and shavers said tyson hit harder . Alex stewart and Steve zouski who fought foreman and tyson said tyson hit harder than foreman . Of course others who have fought tyson , shavers and foreman have said that shavers and foreman hit harder than tyson I dont put much emphasis on who fighters say hit them the hardest anyway . There chin is hardly a punch psi measuring device. Anyway there is no way to know who hit harder than who we can only form an opinion . Its a topic that could be debted forever and we would still be none the wiser.

One thing that has to be considered is how the punchers did in their later years when they only had their power left. Shavers, Foreman and Tyson all fought long past their peak.

Shavers dropped Holmes and KO'd Norton at age 35.
We all know Foreman's accomplishments, KO'd Moorer at age 45.
Tyson had that win (turned into a NC) over Golota at age 35.

Shavers never had anything other than his power so it didn't really matter how old he was.
Foreman was still strong, powerful and most importantly, smart at his old age.
When Tyson lost his speed, he was never as good but he still scored some KO's, just not over top fighters.

I have always thought of Tyson as kind of a combination puncher, while Shavers and Foreman just looked for that one punch.

Shavers had big trouble finishing guys when he had his man hurt, Tyson was a GREAT finisher in his prime, Foreman rarely let his opponents off the hook either until he got old and slow.