His power was medium when compared to other heavyweights in his era.
Straight from the horse’s mouth. “I’m not known as a hard puncher, I fought many men, George Chuvalo, Floyd Patterson & Zora Folley who are stronger than me & hit harder. I am a scientific fighter,” said Ali in an interview he gave at ringside- straight after George Foreman demolished Ken Norton back in ‘73……These were Ali’s own comments when the commentator asked him how come Ken Norton went 24 rounds with you but only two rounds with Foreman.
To simplify punching power, you can classify a boxer as having a hard, medium or soft punch. IMHO Ali’s power fell into the medium category- he hit IN LINE with his bodyweight of approximately 217 lbs. If you look at his overall career, the majority of his victories came on points or late rounds KO, when his opponents were tired. He hardly ever took care of business in the opening third of a fight.
If you compare his KO resume to the Tyson’s & Foreman’s of this world- you see a distinct difference in the manner of their respective victories & specifically the timing of the knockout wins……..Hard punchers can end a fight at anytime, often take their opponents out EARLY on & are described as punching ABOVE their weight.
Another method of gauging punching power is to look at the total number of rounds boxed in their respective victories. You will inevitably find that killers like Tyson & Foreman have boxed far less rounds cumulatively than Ali.
If you are looking for a number in order to quantify Ali’s power & compare it to say a hard hitter then I would guesstimate that Ali hit with around 700 PSI- the average heavyweight. Incidentally British heavyweight Frank Bruno had been “clocked” with a punching power of around 1300 PSI.
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