Mike Tyson was the hardest puncher ever?

[Alan McDougall]

Hey I am new but a boxing fan of many years

For the past few years I have concentrated on the heavy weights , over time

By carefully watching videos and TV of great heavy weight fights over the the last century and even into this century of 2009 I am convinced at his best Mike Tyson was both the hardest puncher in heavy weight boxing history. And potentially the greatest of all time, until sadly his money grabbing wife mother in-law and Don King came in and messed up his boxing life

He punched much like the great Joe Louis, short hard and accurate, but with much more power

What people don't remember is he was bigger and stronger than the likes of Sonny Liston, as big as George Foreman in fact, but 100% dynamic muscle

He was the most magnificent physical specimen ever to embrace the boxing arena and it still greatly saddens me that he was never allowed to fulfil his true awesome boxing potential


George Foreman , a really nice guy, also was a very hard puncher maybe the next hardest after Tyson at his very best

Tyson might have had problems with the very tall Foreman and his powerful clubbing punches. Foreman liked fighting shorter opponents and this might have been a factor if both had met at the very best

Alan of South Africa

[El Kabong]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

[ElTerribleMorales]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

he's in my top 10, just he's not #1

1.Foreman
2.Shavers
3.Louis
4.Frazier
5.Liston
6.Norton
7.Marciano
8.Patterson
9.Tyson
10.Tua

really not in any specific order though, just besides #1 Foreman and 9,10 are about right 2-8 can be moved around

[JazMerkin]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

he's in my top 10, just he's not #1

1.Foreman
2.Shavers
3.Louis
4.Frazier
5.Liston
6.Norton
7.Marciano
8.Patterson
9.Tyson
10.Tua

really not in any specific order though, just besides #1 Foreman and 9,10 are about right 2-8 can be moved around

I could more or less agree with that list, although there are a few other guys I might have in there instead of the bottom 5.

[ElTerribleMorales]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

he's in my top 10, just he's not #1

1.Foreman
2.Shavers
3.Louis
4.Frazier
5.Liston
6.Norton
7.Marciano
8.Patterson
9.Tyson
10.Tua

really not in any specific order though, just besides #1 Foreman and 9,10 are about right 2-8 can be moved around

I could more or less agree with that list, although there are a few other guys I might have in there instead of the bottom 5.

same here, i just did a quick 10 off the top of my head though lol

[JazMerkin]

Just curious, how often do you think a new poster creates a thread about Mike Tyson being either the best HW of all time or the hardest puncher of all time?

I've been here just under 6 months, & I'm sure this is at least the 4th I've seen in that time.

[TitoFan]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

he's in my top 10, just he's not #1

1.Foreman 1. Foreman
2.Shavers 2. Shavers
3.Louis 3. Tyson
4.Frazier 4. Louis
5.Liston 5. Liston
6.Norton 6. Frazier
7.Marciano 7. Marciano
8.Patterson 8. Tua
9.Tyson 9. Ruddock
10.Tua 10. Norton

really not in any specific order though, just besides #1 Foreman and 9,10 are about right 2-8 can be moved around

Interesting list. I put my own list beside it. No way I have Patterson in the top 10, and I think Tyson is way too low at # 9. Also, there were heavier p4p punchers in other divisions, such as Wilfredo Gomez and Julian Jackson.

[Alan McDougall]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

he's in my top 10, just he's not #1

1.Foreman 1. Foreman
2.Shavers 2. Shavers
3.Louis 3. Tyson
4.Frazier 4. Louis
5.Liston 5. Liston
6.Norton 6. Frazier
7.Marciano 7. Marciano
8.Patterson 8. Tua
9.Tyson 9. Ruddock
10.Tua 10. Norton

really not in any specific order though, just besides #1 Foreman and 9,10 are about right 2-8 can be moved around

Interesting list. I put my own list beside it. No way I have Patterson in the top 10, and I think Tyson is way too low at # 9. Also, there were heavier p4p punchers in other divisions, such as Wilfredo Gomez and Julian Jackson.

I agree with the red ranking but would change it thus

1) Tyson
2) Foreman

or

1) Foreman
2) Tyson

Mohammed Ali was a much harder puncher than the likes of Patterson, after all he knocked those ugly monsters as he called them, both the awesome Liston and Foreman, why is he not in the list?

The others are debatable and that is our task in this thread

[awdleyfuturehalloffamer]

Foreman said in interviews that Ron Lyle was the hardest puncher he faced. He said Lyle's punches were so hard that they should have classified as X-rated.

[Taeth]

No Mike Tyson wasn't the hardest puncher ever, he might not even make it into the top 10 heavyweights P4P.

Bigger than Foreman?!?!?! George was 6'4 220 in his prime and even bigger when he won the title his second go round.

Tyson's strength was his speed and combination punching...he could hit hard but not like Foreman, nowhere close

I would argue this all day, Mike Tyson was 5'10 220-230 pounds and hit much faster, IMO he hit pounds per square inch probably harder than anyone(him or L. Lewis), but not necessarily in the ring because he had to reach up to land on a taller guys he couldn't get the same leverage on head shots

IMO Foreman's power wasn't that close, he's probably comparably strong, but nowhere near as fast.

[El Kabong]

Taeth, refresh my memory are we talking about the FASTER puncher or the more POWERFUL puncher

I don't discount Tyson's handspeed, infact it's because of his handspeed that he hit so hard. Look at a guy like Foreman, his opponents knew the punches were coming but he would punch through their guard and knock them out. Tyson would bob and weave and get in close to counter.....Foreman would just push you into range and let loose some bombs.

Comparing the power of Tyson and Foreman is like comparing the power of Shane Mosley and the power of Miguel Cotto....one is a little faster and sharper and the other is more deliberate but heavier

[Taeth]

The difference is Cotto got better leverage and more of his body power into punches. Foreman had a ton of power but besides Moorer I can't think of him one punching almost anyone of significance. He had a lot of power and he would pummel guys, Tyson could do that, or he could spark you out.

But if you have one guy who is 6 inches shorter and the same wieght or more with no body fat, that means that weight comes in the form of more muscle. Tyson had more muscle mass than Foreman, he had more speed than Foreman, he had better technique than Foreman, and he knocked guys out in one punch more often than Foreman.

So I say he would hit something that measures PSI harder is because
A. He's stronger
B. He's a lot faster
C. He has better technique behind his punches.

Nobody has ever gotten better leverage than Mike Tyson (who would have gotten even better leverage if it wasn't for him being so short) That why guys like Holyfield would force Tyson to throw bombs on the outside, and tie him up on the inside because from the outside Tyson was so short he needed to leap in and on the inside he was terrible if you tied him up, he needed it to be clean to get off punches, he didn't know how to work to get punches off like Hatton, Duran, or Holyfield.

[El Kabong]

His KO of Gerry Cooney wasn't a 1 punch KO of someone with significance? And bombing out Joe Frazier was bigger than ANYTHING Tyson ever did.

Foreman hurt Holyfield worse than Tyson ever did....and Foreman was like 44 when he fought Evander.

[JazMerkin]

This thread has basically come up in plenty of different guises before. The general accepted wisdom is that at the very least George Foreman & Earnie Shavers hit harder. What Tyson had was great speed at close range, which enabled him to be a truly vicious puncher. However, I would no way ever believe he is the hardest ever, the two I mentioned definitely hit harder.

[Alan McDougall]

He was as big as Foreman in weight, not height, Foreman admittedly weighed slightly more, but Tyson was a much more muscular man , a better boxer with greater speed

Mikes solid weight , without any bodily fat varies between 216 and 220, Foreman at his very best, when he fought Mohammed Ali was only slightly heavier at 220

I think if anyone could have knocked out Tyson at his best it would have been George Foreman, George dispensed with the great Joe Frazier twice with great ease.

Frazier at his best was a much smaller less powerful boxer than Tyson , both were of similar hight. Joe weighed 205 Mike 220

I do not agree that Ernie Shavers could hit as hard as Mike, he was knocked out by inferior boxers. Mike would have destroyed him

Think at the great ease that Mike knocked out Larry Holmes, I know Larry was past his best but who else knocked out Larry in this fashion? Even at this stage Larry was still a great heavy weight boxer

1.Tyson
2.Foreman
3.Shavers
4.Frazier
5.Liston
6.Norton
7.Marciano
8.Ali
9.Dempsey
10 Patterson

My list is for hardest punchers in boxing history


Alan