Ranking the 10 Hardest Hitters in Boxing Today
Boxing boils down to one thing really: hurting people. Sure, there’s some science to it. Heck, many folks even believe they can see art and poetry amid all the bone-bruising brutality, but the root core of the sport is made of one thing—unadulterated violence.
The fiercest fighters in the sport are the ones who can hit the hardest. One of the more curious aspects of boxing is the variety of ways the hardest punchers appear on the outside. There are muscular Adonises and Pillsbury Doughboys alike. No matter. Some guys can just flat-out punch.
Here are the 10 hardest hitters in boxing today.
10. Andy Lee
1 of 10
Former WBO middleweight titleholder Lee has one of the best punches in boxing.
A southpaw from Ireland, his vicious right hook is perhaps the single best punch in the sport. In fact, Lee’s success as a prizefighter has been absolutely dependent on that one glorious punch.
Some guys throw every single strike as hard as they can. Other guys have that one special punch they wait to land that takes them to the top of the sport. Count Lee among the latter.
9. Artur Beterbiev
2 of 10
A sensational light heavyweight prospect from Russia, Beterbiev is one of the least accomplished fighters on this list. But in 10 years, you’ll probably wonder why he wasn't rated higher. His punches are swift and thudding, and he’s a hard hitter with both hands.
In fact, Beterbiev might end up on top of this list someday. Future bouts against top-level competition will help sort things out, and Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev are exactly the type of opponents that could make or break his career.
For now, let’s just say the dude can bang.
8. Keith Thurman
3 of 10
There’s no doubt Thurman is one of the hardest-hitting fighters in the world.
A tremendous athlete, Thurman varies the speed and velocity of his punches in the way a world championship fighter should. He has a good jab and his cross separates most opponents from their senses the first time it lands clean.
Thurman can rise higher on this list—and in his career for that matter—by facing a higher level of opposition. Fighting fellow PBC welterweight stars like Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia would go a long way toward raising his profile. Let’s hope we see it in 2016.
7. Deontay Wilder
4 of 10
For a fighter so tall, with such a lanky body and skinny legs, WBC heavyweight titleholder Wilder generates an awesome amount of torque on his punches.
His lean, muscular frame probably helps in some scientific way, and as it was suggested before, some guys are just born punchers.
Wilder is such a man. He’s America’s best hope for recapturing heavyweight glory, and those hopes rely heavily on Wilder being able to keep knocking his opponents out. He’s doing pretty well at it so far. Wilder is undefeated, and he’s knocked out all but one opponent.
He faces Artur Szpilka on Saturday.
6. Roman Gonzalez
5 of 10
Lineal flyweight king Gonzalez is undefeated in 44 fights, and he’s on a 10-fight knockout streak.
An outstanding pressure fighter, the Nicaraguan can do it all. He throws destructive body punches, and he can snap an opponent’s head back as good as anyone.
Gonzalez is considered one of the very best pound-for-pound fighters in the sport. He’s also one of the hardest punchers, an attribute he’s used to hunt and destroy every single opponent he’s faced.
With HBO behind him, we should see even more of him in 2016—and that's a good thing.
5. Adonis Stevenson
6 of 10
Lineal light heavyweight champion Stevenson is 38 years old, but his punching power seems ageless.
Stevenson has pure one-punch knockout power. It’s a rarity in the sport, and Stevenson is a skilled enough southpaw to land his overhand left with stunning regularity.
The knock on Stevenson is that he doesn’t seem interested in fighting the very best light heavyweights out there. That might not really be fair. The Haiti-born boxer is just as beholden to the numerous promotional rifts in the sport as anyone, and he isn’t a big enough star to usurp it.
Still, people want to see KO artists like Stevenson in with the best.
4. Wladimir Klitschko
7 of 10
There’s absolutely no doubt that former heavyweight champion Klitschko is one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history.
Yes, the 38-year-old has been more than just a little hesitant to be aggressive in fights, perhaps due to the three knockouts losses he suffered over 10 years ago. But when he does open up and throw punches, he wrecks people.
The Ukrainian looked awful in his decision loss to Tyson Fury last year, but Klitschko can probably still create more force with his punches than anyone else in the heavyweight division today. Maybe he’ll throw more of them next time out, too.
3. Randall Bailey
8 of 10
Former IBF welterweight titleholder Bailey isn’t one of the top stars in the sport. He’s old, past his prime, and even at his best, he wasn’t among the very elite fighters in boxing.
But here’s the thing about Bailey: the dude can flat-out bang.
No fighter in boxing is as reliant as Bailey is on one-punch power. He’s not quite gifted or skilled enough to land his lethal right hand on upper-echelon fighters. But when he does strike, his opponent goes to sleep.
I don’t care how old he is (41) or how many fighters he’s faced this year that I’d never heard of before, as long as Bailey is able to walk under his own power, he’s one of the hardest pure punchers in the world.
2. Gennady Golovkin
9 of 10
Unified middleweight champion Golovkin, age 33, has knocked out 21 straight opponents.
His power punches are fast, compact and combustible. His jab is a battering ram, and he throws powerful combinations with speed and precision. Golovkin is certainly one of the top two or three punchers in boxing.
However, while he’s become a star in his own right, he hasn’t yet faced or defeated a fellow A-lister. Until he does, count me among those who think there’s an even better puncher than Golovkin in boxing right now by virtue of quality opposition.
1. Sergey Kovalev
10 of 10
Boxing's scariest puncher is unified light heavyweight champion Kovalev. The 29-year-old Russian is a fierce and ruthless competitor. He doesn’t just hurt his opponents with seemingly every punch, he also enjoys it.
How much? When his opponents wince in pain, Kovalev smiles at them. And when they retreat from the never-ending onslaught, he rushes toward them to give them more.
Every punch Kovalev throws—no matter how light or misplaced it may look from the comfort of our living rooms—visibly sends a shockwave through its target. If there's currently a better puncher in boxing than Kovalev, he hasn't yet fully revealed himself.
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