Expert: Lian Shoemake - 7/27/2006

Question
In boxing who has the strongest punch ever recorded? is it Lennix Lewis or Mike Tyson or George Foreman?


I heard about this punch testing thing they have to record how hard the person punches. Who has the record?

Who will win if Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield were at their best?

Answer
Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the questions.

I remember hearing about the power-recording device you mention, but I don't know much about it. In order for that to be an effective measurement, every boxer in the world and in history would have to have recorded a measurement on it, and that obviously is not the case.

Therefore, determining the hardest puncher is purely subjective. Both Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes say Earnie Shavers hit them harder than anyone else. Between Ali and Holmes, they fought Foreman, Tyson, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Sonny Liston, Ron Lyle, Holyfield, Gerry Cooney, and a few other big punchers, so I take their word for it.
Of the three you mentioned (Lewis, Tyson and Foreman), I might give a slight edge to Foreman as being the strongest pure puncher.

Prime Mike Tyson (1986-88) vs. prime Holyfield (1990-92) would have been a tremendous fight. If Holyfield could have survived the initial onslaught, I think he might have been able to pull out a late stoppage or close decision in a brutal fight.
Ask me tomorrow, and I might lean toward Tyson :)

Thanks again for writing, Andrew.

Regards,
Lian