Smokin Joe was a great fighter and had a good record: Ali, Machen, Ellis, Quarry, Bonavena, Chuvalo etc is a solid list of victories. I rewatched his destruction of Jimmy Ellis and began to think that he didn't run into too many big punchers in his career (with one obvious exception). Ali had some pop, Bonavena and Chuvalo were strong lads with plenty of KOs but most of them not on the higest of level, Quarry had that left hook, Stander was a strong kid, but he didn't share the ring with the likes of Shavers, Lyle, Liston, Williams etc who fought around the same time. Who do you rank as the biggest puncher of the fighters he beat?
Doug Jones - he was always renown as a feared puncher (even past his prime when he fought Frazier), and his KO victims included the likes of Zora Folley, Bob Foster, and Pete Rademacher. I think Manuel Ramos was also a genuine big puncher, even if that was his only standout attribute.
The biggest pucher of are times Earnie Shavers EDIT: Read it incorrectly, thought it was biggest puncher one would pick Joe Frazier to beat So the answer would be somebody like Quarry
Pound for Pound the biggest "Puncher" he ever beat was Bob Foster. But the hardest hitter he ever beat ............ probably Quarry. Quarry dropped and kept-honest a lot of very hard men who had a reputation for durability.
I was thinking of that too but I decided against it. He has a great KO ratio but if he hit that hard, then why did he get beat so often? Quarry put Shavers out in a round, put Mac Foster out, kept Frazier himself off him for a good few rounds, and really did clean out guys who had no business in the sport at that level like Bodell and Thad Spencer.
Then again.........Chuvalo's one punch shocker.......of Quarry himself..........might suggest George was the biggest hitter. But I think George lucked out there, temple shot high on the head.
The ones who came to my mind were Chuvalo, Quarry and Jones. He did miss out on some great fights vs (old) Liston, Shavers, Lyle and others.
I was shocked to see that, in the era he fought, Joe has so few fights. Won a gold medal in 1964 and only 40 Pro fights in 16 years all in. Not a criticism of course, but.... he also missed out a few real big names back then. Shavers, Norton, Lyle. Maybe at a certain stage of his career his people knew better.
I think his losses are more attributable to other limitations - he wasn't a naturally big HW, his defense wasn't particularly great, and he was vulnerable to skilled boxers, which accounts for most of his losses. But unless you had a Chuvalo-like chin, he was devastating against anyone who made the mistake of standing in front of him, as Zora Folley found out in their rematch. His career definitely tapered off after reaching the zenith of The FOTC. After that he noticeably gained weight, had two title defenses against no-hopers over the span of a year before getting blown out by Foreman, and then only had 4 fights over the rest of his career that weren't against either Ali or Foreman. I think over the 2nd half of his career, his management essentially kept him "on ice" while awaiting the next big fight against Ali or Foreman (even when he fought Jumbo Cummings, there was talk of him fighting Ali a 4th time).
I read about him first in Ring magazine, about 20 years ago when that pizza wrap was still worth reading. They definitely touted him as a natural pincher whose career zenith and nadir coincided. He hurt Frazier in the first round of their fight and then got KOd in the second round and was never the same again. He looks like a good angular jabber in the clip you posted. Nice good jabs. Probably make a bit of noise if he were about today. For me, truly natural punchers with horrific records are pretty rare. There have been a few natural wallpapers who failed every test at World level... Lettelough, Bert Cooper, maybe Colin Jones and Hurricane Carter too, but even then they had markedly better records/bigger wins than Ramos.
His only other losses during his prime years as a contender were a controversial decision to Henry Cooper in England (which he decisively avenged) and KOs to Liston and Lavorante, who were also among the biggest punchers in the division at that time. Even when he lost to Ali, he was considered past his prime.
