Quote Originally Posted by p4pking

THat's all very true... But I always take what a fighter say about his opponents with a grain of salt.. I mean Shavers may have hit harder then a prime Tyson, but really, how the hell would Larry Holmes know that for sure?? I know, he fought them both, but Tyson put him to sleep and Shavers didn't.. At some point when your getting hit with a sledgehammer, especially as an older man, it can't be easy to say who honestly had more power.. Besides that Shavers landed probably his best possible punch on Holmes and he still got up from it.. I just don't know. If you ask James Toney the people who hit him hardest with Merqui Sosa and Iran Barkley. Not Sam Peter, of course
Thats true, and I do take what fighters say with a grain of salt as well, but when you have three guys saying the same thing about one guy, that has to give it a lot more credibility. I mean we all know James Toney is a shittalker and would rather die than give Rahman and Peter any credit, but what about Ali, Holmes and Cobb? I know Cobb was about as much of a straight shooter as your going to find in boxing, and Holmes and Ali had nothing to gain. I'm not saying that Shavers was the hardest puncher of all time (because for all we know the hardest puncher of all time could be some journeyman that none of us have heard of), but the fact that these guys would testify like that proves that his power was not overrated, he could hit with the best of them.

Also I never agreed with the logic that "Tyson stopped Holmes, Ernie Couldn't so Tyson must hit harder." Tyson was fighting an older Holmes and of course Holmes was able to get back to his feet several times after Tyson knocked him down. I view the Tyson knockout as a testament to Tyson's speed and accuracy as the KO was caused by accumulation. Earnie never really capitalized on that knockdown of Holmes besides finishing that round strong.