Former world champion Tony Bellew has named the man that he thinks is ‘the single biggest puncher of his era.’
The current crop of heavyweights is a solid one and amongst them are several big hitters.
Anthony Joshua has knocked out 88.46% of his opponents, Deontay Wilder has knocked out 97.67% and, in recent times, Tyson Fury has been on a run of stoppages over Wilder, Dillian Whyte and Derek Chisora.
Recently, Zhilei Zhang‘s chilling one-punch knockout of Joe Joyce – a man with a famously granite chin who had never been down before in his professional career – could also enter him into discussions about the division’s biggest punchers.
In conversation on Froch and Fighting about what might happen should Joshua fight Wilder, Froch suggests to Bellew that Wilder is the hardest-hitting of them all.
“I agree with you. Deontay Wilder is probably the single biggest puncher of his era, without a shadow of a doubt.”
He then goes on to compare Wilder’s power with Joshua and Fury’s.
“But believe you me, if AJ hits [Wilder] with all his weight behind his shot … You’ve gotta agree with this, AJ is a far bigger puncher than Tyson Fury.”
“Look how many times Fury dropped Deontay Wilder [in that third fight] and we all know Joshua is a bigger puncher.”
The only way to find out who hits harder between Wilder and Joshua is for the two to finally agree to what would be a huge fight.
A recent shift in the boxing landscape of Saudi Arabia means a highly-publicised deal is now off the table, but promoter Eddie Hearn has told Boxing Social that the fight remains priority.