Quote Originally Posted by X
It's not about how hard you punch - there are loads of huge punchers who never made it to World Champion. In the 70's there was a light-heavy called Bob Satterfield who people reckon punched harder that any heavy who ever lived. Trouble was, he couls be outboxed and had a weakish chin.

The punch that knocks you cold is the one you don't see coming, Tyson did this with blinding hand speed and good combination punching, in his prime. Lewis did it by cleverly disguising his KO punches as part of his style. It was Tyson who had the gift of producing the eye catching knockout, and he will no doubt be on more 'highlights' clips than Lewis in the future.

I definitely don't agree that these two are possibly the hardest punchers ever - that's silly and just seems like the usual revisionism of thinking that today's fighters are better in every aspect than any who have gone before, just because we have videos now (or some such bullshit)

The old bareknuckle fighters would not have punched with the same brute force as today's guys because they would have broken their hands, but that's not to say that if you put John L. or Jess Willard in 10oz gloves, they would punch any less hard that Chris Byrd or Wlad Kitschko (say)

I think the hardest punchers are those that hurt their opponents even when they saw the punch coming, or if the blow was off target and hit their arms. Tyson and Lewis did not Kayo people by bulldozing them, it was technique.

Apocryphally, opponents have commented that Max Bear, George Foreman, Earnie Shavers, Rocky Marciano, Cleveland Williams, Jess Willard, Sonny Liston (in no order or anything, and to just name a few) could hit you anywhere and it would cause damage, or could just punch right through your defense.

There have been notable Kayo kings (Tyson, Frazier, Louis etc) with fantastic knockout records but these were the result of their combination punches, brutal finishing, pressure etc rather than oure unadulterated one punch power. This does not diminish their effectiveness as fighters.

Another thing to remember is how much more we see the referee stopping fights and awarding a TKO nowadays. That tells me that the opponent has not been blasted into unconsciousness, whereas and old-time ref was much more likely to let the fight continue until someone could not (or would not) get up. Granted, the heavier gloves used now also diminish some of the power from today's fighters.

I am not expert enough to have the answer, but it's a complicated enough question, with enough variables that it is not so easy as just looking at someone's KO (or TKO) stats etc.

Just to be controversial, I think that if Lewis and Tyson both did the 'Ivan Drago' test and punched some machine once, Lewis would hit it harder. This is because he was 6'5" and around 19 stone whereas Tyson was 5'10" and around 15.5 stone. BUT, in the ring, Tysons devastating pressure, offensive speed and combination punches make him a much more scary proposition in the early rounds than Lennox.

Only my opinions, of course, guys.

Of course guys didn't punch as hard thats silly.... These guys are much stronger today especially in the case of Tyson and Lennox and they have better technical components to their punches. Also I said they were the hardest punches of the last 20 years, and PERHAPS ever.