Who punched harder Lewis or Tyson?

The two hardest punchers to being world heavyweight champion of the last 20-30 years if not ever. Who punched harder? Ever opponent they both faced Lewis knocked out, except Holyfield, but he did hurt Holyfield worse than Tyson did. Tyson knocked out Bruno quicker. Lewis knocked out Biggs, Ruddock, and Golota quicker... So who was the bigger puncher? IMO its probably Mike Tyson, but he could hit the biggers guys as easily as Lennox could, though Lennox did hurt Ruddock with a clean cross yet Mike hit him with numerous hooks to no avail.

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Originally Posted by Taeth

The two hardest punchers to being world heavyweight champion of the last 20-30 years if not ever. Who punched harder? Ever opponent they both faced Lewis knocked out, except Holyfield, but he did hurt Holyfield worse than Tyson did. Tyson knocked out Bruno quicker. Lewis knocked out Biggs, Ruddock, and Golota quicker... So who was the bigger puncher? IMO its probably Mike Tyson, but he could hit the biggers guys as easily as Lennox could, though Lennox did hurt Ruddock with a clean cross yet Mike hit him with numerous hooks to no avail.

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Bro...are you serious???

Tyson by a long shot and Tua hit harder than either of them.

Earnie Shavers was the hardest of all time.

Not as dumb a question as i thought at first glance
Lewis 41w with 32 ko's
Tyson 50w with 44 ko's
So very different in their delivery of the ko
Lewis against good fighters used a textbook right after the jab
best example against Andrew Golota. Very Klitschko like
Tyson was Unique in his delivery down low and punching from odd crouched and leaping stance. Huge power from short inside hooks,very accurate.Tua used a huge leaping left hook as well but it is a more conventional delivery. My opinion. Due to the unexpected nature of the punch and the fear and trepidation it created in his opponents I'd have to pick Tyson. For all those Lewis fans out there,What about Lewis/ Ray mercer?? i had fortgotten about that slugfest! props to lennox for taking on that toughguy!

Tyson didn't hurt Ruddock? He blew him out. The only reason Ruddock got a rematch was because he had him in trouble for about 30 seconds at the end of the 6th round.

Good question...

I don't know they both puched different. Tysons punches had more of a hook in them (due to his short arms I would guess)
Lewis hadn long arms (more extension) his punches were straighter....

If I had to make a choice I would go with Lewis due to the extension/delivery of the punch compared to the shorter/hook-ish Tyson punches....

Cooney, Foreman, Marciano, Joe Louis, Max Baer all hard HW punchers.......and the list goes on and on.

When it comes down to hardest of all time, the general consensus is it's usually between Foreman and Shavers.

Tyson had the more compact explosive punch while Lewis threw a straighter more snapping type of punch.Two very different kind of punchers, Tyson punched with leverage behind his shots and Lewis used more of a textbook kind of punch using extension and snap to create power.

I never saw Lewis chuck another guy accross the ring with a single punch.

Remember, Strength + speed = power

Tyson - power

Lewis - hard punch

this kinda question is wot makes boxing match ups puzzling
it boils down to styles make fights some boxers are more at risk from hooks ( tyson ) or crosses ( lewis )
id probably say prime Tyson hit harder but when he lost his speed then i think the 34 year old plus Lewis hit harder because he carried so much bulk.

I remember after Larry Holmes had fought a prime tyson he said people hit harder , even though Tyson was the first to KO him , this is down to Tysons speed and the pact that he was a slugger.
cheers chaps !! thats my opinion :)

Someone should hook both of these guys up to the machine that they hooked up that Russian dude in Rocky 4.
I guess neither of them are really in game shape though...

IMO the harder punch depends on the punch thrown...
Jab (Lewis)
Uppercut (Toss up, but slight edge to Tyson)
Hook (Tyson)
Overhand (Lewis, but due to Tyson's height.)

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Originally Posted by mucho testosterone

Cooney, Foreman, Marciano, Joe Louis, Max Baer all hard HW punchers.......and the list goes on and on.

When it comes down to hardest of all time, the general consensus is it's usually between Foreman and Shavers.

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Yep, exactly. And next would be Tyson. Somewhere down that list a little ways would be Lewis. Tyson was the harder puncher no doubt IMO. Lewis caught a lot of these guys, after Tyson had already destroyed them, Biggs, Bruno etc. And fought Holyfield when Holy was on the downslide a little and Lewis was in his prime, whereas Tyson fought Holy when he himself was on the downslide a little and Holy was in his prime. I say Tyson, fo sure. ;D

Holy was in his prime ??

mike tysons power was brute. it was
he had that short-weighted-swift left hook
and this crazy right uppercut where he gives
so much leverage that he shakes not just his opponents head
but the whole torso to snap back and shake visibly

they had power in different ways, if any of you follow tennis its like saying whos serve was better, roddicks bcoz its faster or sampras because he wins more points off it.

lewis's were probably harder because he had the extra 20-30 lbs, BUT due to the compactness of tyson and his speed his body shots ewere much harder than lewis

head punches - lewis, tyson could knock them one side of ring to the other bcoz he came up so they werere moveing when he did it, lewis needed to set himself so the fighter he hit normally wasnt moving

body punches - no doubt tyson