Quote Originally Posted by Master View Post
If you got a punching bag and measured the punches of fighters you would be right a lot of fighters today may puch harder because they weigh more.

Actually landing that punch is a fight against quality opponents is much harder to do.

Punch power makes up a lot of things more than just weight it includes speed, accuracy, timing, technique and experience.

To knock someone down and out at the highest level takes years and does not come over night.

Guys like Louis and Shavers fought the best in their era and demonstrated their power against the best chins of all time.

Do not demean what they have achieved ever.
I agree with you on the intricacies of punch power. Which is why I think KOratio vs quality+heavy opponents is a better indicator than lbs per square inch of force. and why I think an even better measure is "rounds per KO vs quality+relevant opponents" an even better measure because it encompasses delivery skills.

However I obviously completely disagree on your final points.

These guys proved their power/delivery on guys with FAR weaker chins than the guys today do, obvious by the general size of the opponents.

When analysing 2 boxers of different sizes, the chances are much greater that the larger boxer has the better chin. OF course, in practice it often still occurs that the smaller boxer can obviously have the harder chin. But when we analyse a representative sample of boxers, a population of fighters, a whole resume or a whole era, the sample with the heavier boxers ALWAYS has the harder chins in general. This is just plain obvious fact!

When we analyse Shavers opponents, they are without much exception, mostly cruiserweights (much easier to KO than genuine HW's) and bums (much easier to land his power on than quality opponents) or both (much easier to land on AND knock out).

So yeah, I think one can ONLY objectively state it this way and it isn't degrading at all.

Objectively speaking Deontay Wilder has a resume approximately 500x better than Earnie Shavers. Yet we don't comment on the hardness of his opponents chins he cracked or the quality of their skills he managed to overcome do we? I wonder why that is and I wonder why we should have to do that for Shavers but not for Deontay? Hmmm

It is what it is!