Cuevas Zamora Danny Lopez All freakish punchers. Who was the biggest puncher amongst them? Personally, I'd say Lopez as he had the most effortless power of the trio. Lil Red knocked guys dead with shots that looked like nothing.
At the start of a fight, I would rate Lopez 3rd. When he got knocked down and then got up, he seemed to punch harder.
Lopez is the most puzzling puncher ever for me. I cannot, for the life of me, understand where the power came from. Wasn’t hard to see from Zamora or especially Cuevas. Easier to prep for. Lopez would throw what looked almost like arm punches and break a guy’s face with a jab or leave him convulsing with a right. Not naturally heavy handed, no real speed. Just steady streams of straight shots. But he didn’t need time to work you. Any single shot could do it if he caught you right.
Lopez had some of the broadest shoulders ever on a featherweight. That was a big source of his power. I watched a clip of him making his HOF speech. Guy is built like a middleweight. He didn't look fat and outta shape post-retirement like Barrera and Morales. He looked like a guy you could tell once fucked people up for a living.
Why do you say not naturally heavy handed? I always assumed he was and that this was how he was able to spark guys with what seemed to be arm punches
Lopez chopped down with his right hand the same way Hearns did - getting full leverage. You see it a lot in his KO win of Olivares. He had very good technique.
You can typically just see that with the way a fighter throws and lands. It’s not imperceptible. Nothing about Lopez suggested a heavy handed fighter. Very good technique, as Xplosive has stated, but that still doesn’t connect the dots for me when I actually watch him. Just reinforces what I’ve always thought. Punching power is innate for the most part.
I'll never understand how the fkk a guy can be KO'd like Juan Malvarez was. It looked like Lopez just pushed the right through his guard.
The president of the West Coast Boxing HoF is a former pro and he sparred with Olivares and Little Red, among others. He said that if Lopez hit you in the chest with a jab, you'd get a black and blue bruise on your chest. He said every punch hurt. Punching is kind of misleading. I tell guys in the gym that if you are trying really hard to punch really hard, all you are doing is making it hard to punch hard. Be loose in your arms and shoulders, shift your weight and torque your hips over it. Let the rotation of your body whip your fist through the target.
That's why I always said that this effortless power notion is bs. Most persons punch harder when they are relaxed instead of swinging from the hips
