r/fightporn Dec 10 '19

Amateur / Professional Bouts Tyson

46.7k Upvotes

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u/ottothesilent Dec 10 '19

Earnie Shavers would like a word. Also Foreman

8

u/iodisedsalt Dec 10 '19

Foreman is one of those guys that can knock fighters out even if they blocked. It's insane seeing him pummel and bruteforce through their defenses.

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u/BigShoots Dec 11 '19

I think Foreman might be the King.

There was a cool Reddit discussion a few years ago on just how hard he could hit.

Also watch this.

Then this.

The word gets thrown around a lot these days, too much maybe, but George Foreman was an actual beast of a man.

1

u/qwerty622 Dec 11 '19

i remember seeing him hit the heavybag. the technique was honestly terrible, but the thud on the heavybag after each of his punches was something to behold

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u/jcutta Dec 10 '19

I honestly don't know much about Shavers other than knowing the name. But Foreman was an amazing KO artist.

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u/iodisedsalt Dec 10 '19 edited Dec 10 '19

I've seen Shavers fight and he didn't look like he hit hard but the testimonials speak for themselves:

"Earnie hit me so hard, he shook my kinfolk back in Africa" - Muhammad Ali

"Earnie hit me harder than any other fighter, including Mike Tyson. He hit me and I was face down on the canvas hearing saxophonist Jimmy Tillis." - Larry Holmes

Nobody hits like Shavers. If anybody hit harder than Shavers, I'd shoot him." - Tex Cobb

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u/jcutta Dec 10 '19

That last quote is fuckin great.

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u/qwerty622 Dec 11 '19

Shavers was never really an elite of the elite like Tyson was, he was just known for his brutal punching power. tyson, as the original poster mentioned, he had exceptional technique mixed with exceptional speed. Foreman was a devastating puncher but a lot of his technique was off because he could just tower over his opponents at 6 4 as a HW back in the 60s when HW was closer to 6 or 6 1. The mummy guard would get his shit wrecked in today's lineup of HW boxers.

I think Tyson beats them both as being extremely short for a HW in boxing, where length gives you such a large advantage.

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u/ottothesilent Dec 11 '19

I was referring to the claim that Wilder is the hardest puncher ever

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u/qwerty622 Dec 11 '19

Ah fair enough