Muhammad Ali and George Foreman are two of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
The two men each reigned as multiple-time world champions, and both of them were able to win a number of iconic fights by knockout.
Ali claimed stoppage wins over fighters such as Joe Frazier, Floyd Patterson and even Foreman himself, while ‘Big George’ knocked out the likes of Frazier, Ken Norton and Michael Moorer, the latter seeing him become the oldest world heavyweight champion in history.
Another man that both Ali and Foreman took on was Chuck Wepner, with Foreman winning inside three rounds in his fourth professional bout, before Wepner rebuilt and challenged Ali for the world heavyweight title in 1975, with Ali claiming a 15th round TKO win.
Despite those two bouts, a resurfaced interview with Wepner saw him reveal who he deemed to be an even more powerful puncher.
“Sonny Liston was the best puncher I faced. It hurts if anybody hits you. I could always take it, absorb it and come back. But with Liston, after you got hit by him, you were very weary to make that move again. We trained to stick a jab and move with Liston, [but he stayed] right on your chest, throwing punches. Not like [Muhammad] Ali, who would hit you and get out.”
Wepner fought Liston in June 1970 and suffered a ninth round retirement defeat, needing 72 stitches in his face following the bout.
Liston became undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1962 with a first round knockout over Patterson, but would go on to lose his title to Ali in 1964. Liston’s record ended with 50 wins and 4 defeats, 39 of his wins coming by knockout.
