Which Heavyweight had the single hardest punch

[shawn_]

The name of Earnie Shavers figures prominently in every discussion of hard punchers in the heavyweight division. I suspect that many who declare him the hardest puncher ever, do so for the sole purpose of seeming cool, hip and knowledgeable. If he was as hard a puncher as so many purport him to to be, he must have been one lousy fighter. Otherwise, how do you explain a puncher of his caliber never having won a championship?

I must cop to extreme prejudice against non-champions. To put this in perspective: I have more respect for John Ruiz (a lousy fighter) than I do for Earnie Shavers (a great puncher). In my ****-retentive-narrow-minded point of view, a great puncher who has never won a championship is akin to a toothless pitbull - all bark and no bite.

I believe he suffered from a condition known as glassjawitis.

[steptwome]

Single punch?.........................hands down.........TYSON

[grayfist]

I believe he suffered from a condition known as glassjawitis.

I'm not sure... but I can remember only five times that Shavers visited the canvass. That's not too bad for an 89-fight career. In one of those, he was KO'd by a 20-something kid in his last fight when he was already 50 years old.

Shavers debuted in the late '60s at a rather late age of 22 and fought until 1995, with periods of temporary retirement in between.

The first foe to drop and take out Shavers was Ron Stander who was later KO'd by Joe Frazier in a title fight. Then, Jerry Quarry pummeled Shavers with more than a dozen consecutive punches to TKO Shavers in the first round. Then, a fighter named Bob Stallings KD'd Shavers on the way to a UD 10 win. Then, Ron Lyle and Shavers exchanged KD's.

When Holmes stopped Shavers in their second meeting, Shavers was erect and aware of his surroundings. He was just totally exhausted. When Randall "Tex" Cobb TKO'd Shavers, it was the same thing. The ref stopped the fight because Shavers was visibly too tired to throw a punch.

Shavers lost a total of 14 fights and was stopped only in half of those.

Shavers did have stamina issues, as he himself admitted. Some blamed that on his training methods and his fight strategy. He tended to forego cardio exercises and to throw power punches all throughout the early rounds thus was often very tired by the middle rounds.He was also often inaccurate and made too many wild swings. Even in winning the few fights he had that lasted into the late rounds, he looked pretty spent.

In retrospect, Shavers said he tended to rely on his power too much and didn't bother to hone his skills in the fine points of the game. He regrets having gone that way, he said.

[hemichromis]

The name of Earnie Shavers figures prominently in every discussion of hard punchers in the heavyweight division. I suspect that many who declare him the hardest puncher ever, do so for the sole purpose of seeming cool, hip and knowledgeable. If he was as hard a puncher as so many purport him to to be, he must have been one lousy fighter. Otherwise, how do you explain a puncher of his caliber never having won a championship?

I must cop to extreme prejudice against non-champions. To put this in perspective: I have more respect for John Ruiz (a lousy fighter) than I do for Earnie Shavers (a great puncher). In my ****-retentive-narrow-minded point of view, a great puncher who has never won a championship is akin to a toothless pitbull - all bark and no bite.

earnie shavers was the hardest puncher in heavyweight history but he was not a good boxer he lost most rounds he fought but almost always came up with a big KO

he won alot of fights on his power alone.

like alot of power punchers he was fearsome against journeymen but feel short against the best fighters.

other examples of this type of boxer are:

nigel benn
julian jackson
david tua
hamed
and there are many other lesser ones as well.


power does not make a boxer great.

you seem to think you know a fair bit about boxing but judging by some of your posts you don't!

just out of interest who do you think had the hardest punch ever?

[Panamaniac]

you seem to think you know a fair bit about boxing but judging by some of your posts you don't!

just out of interest who do you think had the hardest punch ever?

I never claimed to know a fair bit about boxing. I have only claimed to have certain biases and I sure as hell know what and whom I like in the sport. You are solely responsible for your perception of me - and by extension - your judgement of my knowledge.

As for who had the hardest punch ever, my pick is Mike Tyson. I have never seen opponents manifest the effects of a punch the way Tyson's did...

[*2TOUGH*]

Audley Harrison

followed by Danial Williams

[Jim Jeffries]

Single punch?.........................hands down.........TYSON

Tyson would have been OWNED by a young Foreman, Cus even told him so. And Tyson usually knocked his mostly tomatoe can opponents out with an accumulation of punches in combinations.

[BrooklynBomber]

Single punch?.........................hands down.........TYSON

Not even close.

Lewis, Shavers and Foreman are all much bigger punchers then Tyson

[Enayze]

I like, and root for Wlad, but I don't think he is "arguably the hardest puncher of all time." He simply hasn't faced enough quality opponents for us to judge. For example Larry Holmes may have been one of the all-time greats but we don't know. He dominanted the 80s but against what competition? If he had come up 10 years earlier and fought against Ali, Norton, Frazier, Foreman and we would have had a better idea. The same goes for Wlad. Foreman knocked Frazier down 6 times. Frazier was the heavyweight version of Hatton (although I think with a much better defense) pressuring opponents, willing to get hit to land devasting body shots and hooks to the head.

Wlad is one of the hardest punchers but

1. his KO record is not better than a young Forman and
2. he doesn't have the same kind of one punch knock out power that they had and
3. he hasn't faced enough top-tier fighters with world class chins (Frazier) for us to truly evaluate him.

I disagree, he definitely has the same type of one punch power as they did. His single punches dropped Brock, Byrd, Mc'Cline, Mercer, and Brewster all guys with solid chins.

[StarshipTrooper]

I never claimed to know a fair bit about boxing. I have only claimed to have certain biases and I sure as hell know what and whom I like in the sport. You are solely responsible for your perception of me - and by extension - your judgement of my knowledge.

As for who had the hardest punch ever, my pick is Mike Tyson. I have never seen opponents manifest the effects of a punch the way Tyson's did...

Well, I do know a good bit about boxing and I've never seen anything lacking in Panamaniac's knowledge. He picks Tyson, fair enough, it's not like it's an off the wall pick. I pick Shavers myself: I know more about 70s fighters than Panamanic does because I watched most of them live. We are all stronger in some areas and weaker in others and that's going to be reflected in our views. No one should be downed for it or have their intelligence questioned for it because NO ONE is exempt from that. Like I said, it's not like he's making an off the wall pick: I bet a lot of people would pick Tyson. It's not like he said "Butterbean" or something goofy like that. Please bear this in mind before you question someone's boxing knowledge again please.

Poet