Last night in Atlantic City, in “The House That Gatti Built,” we all saw a brutal and highly efficient display of what all boxing fans both love and, deep down, crave: KO punching power. Argentine 140-pound KO King Lucas Matthysse blew away the previously unstopped Lamont Peterson, in so doing giving the sport a high-energy jolt of excitement.
For as much as we can appreciate a master boxer, like, say, a Floyd Mayweather Junior, there is nothing quite like a lights out master such as Matthysse. That said, who are the single hardest punchers in boxing today from heavyweight on down?
Let’s see:
Hardest Hitting Heavyweight: Wladimir Klitschko – 51 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: KO12 Eddie Chambers, March, 2012
Hardest Hitting Cruiserweight: Guillermo Jones – 31 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO11 Denis Lebedev, May, 2013
Hardest Hitting Light-Heavyweight: Tavoris Cloud – 19 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO10 Julio Gonzalez, August, 2008
Hardest Hitting Super-Middleweight: Carl Froch – 22 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO5 Lucian Bute, May, 2012
Hardest Hitting Middleweight: Gennady Golovkin – 23 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: KO1 Lajuan Simon, December, 2011
Hardest Hitting Light-Middleweight: Saul Alvarez – 31 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: KO6 Carlos Baldomir, September, 2010
Hardest Hitting Welterweight: Manny Pacquiao – 38 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO12 Miguel Cotto, November, 2009
Hardest Hitting Light-Welterweight: Lucas Matthysse – 32 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO3 Lamont Peterson, May, 2013
Hardest Hitting Lightweight: Omar Figueroa – 17 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: KO1 Abner Cotto, April, 2013
Hardest Hitting Featherweight: Juan Manuel Lopez – 30 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO2 Bernabe Concepcion, July, 2010
Hardest Hitting Super-Bantamweight: Nonito Donaire – 20 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO9 Toshiaki Nishioka, October, 2012
Hardest Hitting Bantamweight: Hugo Ruiz – 28 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO4 Francisco Arce, October, 2011
Hardest Hitting Flyweight: Hernan Marquez – 24 KO’s in total. Most eye-catching KO/stoppage: TKO1 Luis Concepcion, April, 2011
And the single hardest hitter Pound-for-Pound in the sport today: Lucas Martin Matthysse!!