Was GERRY COONEY the hardest puncher in history? All time greats who know something about power have opinions?

Question

He hit me so hard he shook my kinfolk in Africa! That statement by Ali has elevated Earnie Shavers to honarary top puncher

EXPERT TESTIMONY

Legends since who have fought both Shavers and Cooney have other thoughts

LARRY HOLMES and RON LYLE who both were floored by Shavers testify that AFTER fighting Cooney that Gerry was the hardest hitter they EVER faced

LYLE by the way you may remember also absorbed GEORGE FOREMAN'S hardest shots in an all out war

That brings us to Foreman himself

Big George is also regarded by most as a possible candidate for hardest puncher ever

George of course as mentioned took massive blows from the thunderous Ron Lye

George had always said Ron hit him the hardest UNTIL he met Cooney

George states in his book BY GEORGE and many interviews that Cooney's punch was so hard that he lost all facilitys and had no legs. He bluffed Gerry by moving forward but said If Gerry knew how hurt I was he would have ko'd me

George of the 90's had a TITANIC chin

Answer 1

That's just your opinion, George Foreman is known for complimenting just about anyone in the ring (he is nice like that just watch american inventor) so i wouldn't take his word so seriously and Ron Lyle is also known as a guy who compliments a lot after fights just because they said he hit hard it does not mean its true moreover that's just TWO guys, almost everyone who has ever faced Shavers has agreed that Shavers hit the hardest and Gerry Cooney does not even appear in the top ten list of hardest punchers published by ring magazine and most boxing analysts and experts will always place shavers above cooney simply based on the knock out percentage that shavers accumulated, Cooney was nowhere close to shavers and if he truly had that much power, he definetely wasted it.

Answer 2

Whether he was or not ,none of his punches looked like the most awesome punch photographed. That distinction goes to Rocky Marciano turning Walcott's face into a distortion as though it had been in a carnival fun house mirror.

Answer 3

receiving a punch and the effects of it has plenty to do with how well conditioned and the age of the boxer. a young ali might not feel the same effect as the aging one. so is all relevant.

Answer 4

I never knew that Cooney was known as a puncher . I  only  heard about Shavers  and  Foreman  being up there  as the hardest hitters.

Answer 5

Congrats.

You have to take a punch too.

Answer 6

Earnie Shavers was the hardest punching heavyweight, but he didnt have much else going for him and was never able to become a champion, although he should of beaten ali but was robbed out a decision. cooney was a decent puncher, but foreman hit harder and so did sonny liston

Answer 7

Certainly Cooney was one of the hardest punchers, but thats all he had was a big punch, he managed to do allot with it though.

Shavers hit really hard too, but he wasn't a one punch knockout fighter like Cooney, usually putting a few punches together in combo's.

Joe Frazier had his 2 inch punch, with his glove two inches away from your face he could generate enough power to knock guys out. It made him very dangerous inside.

I would also throw Lennox Lewis up there as one of the hardest punchers of all time. The way he collapsed fighters like Micheal Grant, Andrew Golota, Frank Bruno and Francoise Botha, who took a bunch of shots from Mike Tyson without going down, as did Golota, but Lewis dropped them for the count with one strait right hand.

Lennox's strait right has to be the hardest punch in boxing history. But Lewis didnt possess allot of power in his cross's or hooks or uppercuts. But that overhand right was deadly.

But for brute strenght in eaither hand, Id go with Cooney, I mean when big George gives you props for being the hardest puncher after being in there with Frazier and Lyle thats quite the praise, Since ive never been hit by Cooney.... I think I would take George's word for it.

If Holmes,Lyle,Foreman and Ali all said that Cooney was the hardest puncher of all time, you can take it to the bank.

Little fact about Shavers:

Shavers was origionally hired to play Clubber Lang in Rocky 3, but after a few rounds of light sparring with Stalone they had to stop it because Stalone had 4 broken ribs. Shavers said he had a hard time pulling his punches. He was replaced by Mr. T

Answer 8

There are a lot of great punchers and Gerry Cooney is one of them. Cooney had one of the best left hooks in the history of the heavy weights was he a great fighter no but he was very good and he could crack. Jerry Cooney first real fight was against Larry Holmes his people protected him to well if they would have let him fight some tuff competition he may have been heavy weight champion what a waist of talent

Answer 9

i would put shavers first, foreman second, liston third, then louis, dempsey, marciano, tyson, then cooney & bruno.

Answer 10

Gerry certainly has power.  He's such a nice guy outside the ring that it's hard for some of his contemporaries to say anything negative about him.   The truth is that both Forman and Shavers hit harder.    Accomplishment and quality of opposition both speak for themselves.  

Forman is a bit of a politician who would say what he felt was the right thing at the time.  Ali, who never fought Cooney,  would joke about his mother before a fight but he was one of the nicest guys in the world after.   You couldnt pay him to say anything but nice things about people.  

Like I said, Gerry certainly has power but didnt make good use of it.    Forman and Shavers knocked out world class opponents.  Gerry never did.  Young, Phil Jackson, Lyle were all past their primes when Cooney destroyed them.  He nearly beheaded Norton but, again, it was the Norton AFTER struggling with Scott Ledeux.  

Gerry can crack but I can't see putting him ahead of Forman or Shavers no matter how nice those guys want to be.  Facts are facts.  IF someone had taught Gerry how to fight he might have beaten guys like Frazier and others.  

You cant take away the fact that he can punch.  He's a nice suburban white guy so some make the mistake of thinking he can't fight.  He's NOT so nice in the ring.  He's more ''mismanaged'' than bad fighter.  He's certainly better than that overrated ham-n-egger, Jerry Quarry.  

Cooney HAS power.  If he ever learned to use it he would have been a bigger threat to Holmes,  tho he would still lose,  and he would have finished Michael Spinks.