I was watching this video of Prince Naseem Hamed and saw how huge his fists were

[TidWell]

His wrist and his fist were massive, is this why he had such devastating power?

I time stamped it


I know he had tree trunk legs and would always be off balance but he could knock guys down or out while in air without his feet planted to the ground

How important is the bone structure for a puncher?

If you got small wrists and fists but lots of muscle you might not be a thudding puncher and would need to land a super loaded shot with all your weight, but guys like Naz could ice you with one shot even without loading up.

 

[Woldog]

His hands really aren't that big. They've just got a bit more fat to them now since he put on 300kg. He was smaller than me so his hands are probably smaller than mine. What matters is bone density, the more dense your bones the harder and heavier they are.

 

[reveler]

power has more to do with elastic recoil in the shoulders. a few ounces +/- in the hands doesnt really matter.

most fighters get taught to punch too stiff and tight to realize their full power. gotta let those arms stretch behind you a bit if you really want to load up.

 

[mozfonky]

punching power is largely a mystery, nas was one of the all time greats in that dept, no doubt, and I wasn't ever a fan.

 

[YoungCashMoney]

I have abnormally small hands due to a medical disorder I had as a kid, smaller than both my moms & my dads ( who has huge hands ). They aren't pygmy fists by any means, but probably the size of your typical 14 year old boy hand to a certain degree.
I have been told that I am a good puncher, and have scored knockdowns and knockouts with single shots with and without sparring gear, sometimes on accident/limiting power and trying not to. Even against guys that have outweighed me by 20-30lbs.

Based off my experience, and me having far from large hands or wrists, I know punching power has little to do with how big the hands/wrists are.

It's strange, the term heavy handed, because thats the term some coaches have used to describe my power, I always looked at it as just explosive but lately people always talk about how heavy my hands are, how my punches are heavy, & Floyd Sr., described it when we were doing mitts as "look man.. it feels like you have bricks in your gloves" & that was with 18oz gloves. Very strange because seriously my hands are way tiny for a man lol.

 

[TidWell]

power has more to do with elastic recoil in the shoulders. a few ounces +/- in the hands doesnt really matter.

most fighters get taught to punch too stiff and tight to realize their full power. gotta let those arms stretch behind you a bit if you really want to load up.

Ive see guys throw arm punches and drop fools,

Alexis ARguello never winged it like that or loaded up shots and he could drop you with a basic one two and that dude was skinny.

 

[TidWell]

I have abnormally small hands due to a medical disorder I had as a kid, smaller than both my moms & my dads ( who has huge hands ). They aren't pygmy fists by any means, but probably the size of your typical 14 year old boy hand to a certain degree.
I have been told that I am a good puncher, and have scored knockdowns and knockouts with single shots with and without sparring gear, sometimes on accident/limiting power and trying not to. Even against guys that have outweighed me by 20-30lbs.

Based off my experience, and me having far from large hands or wrists, I know punching power has little to do with how big the hands/wrists are.

It's strange, the term heavy handed, because thats the term some coaches have used to describe my power, I always looked at it as just explosive but lately people always talk about how heavy my hands are, how my punches are heavy, & Floyd Sr., described it when we were doing mitts as "look man.. it feels like you have bricks in your gloves" & that was with 18oz gloves. Very strange because seriously my hands are way tiny for a man lol.

 

[YoungCashMoney]

Lmao not quite THAT small..


Heres an old vid of me when I was 130lbs, with 18oz gloves on



My hands are far from large, but my shots still got power. So large hands = power isn't true in my experience.

I boxed somebody who had some huge hands and wrists (he fist bumped me when I first saw him and it kinda hurt my hand, I was a bit offended lol), I was expecting him to have huge heavy shots. Nope, barely any power in his actual punches.

 

[Prefect]

Big hands are an indicator of someone having athleticism and health. Big fists mean long arms and muscles. Just like a big square jaw would correlate to punching power.

 

[Noveltymortar]

Big hands are an indicator of someone having athleticism and health. Big fists mean long arms and muscles. Just like a big square jaw would correlate to punching power.

What? How does hand size correlate to health and athleticism? You could be in cirque de sole and have tiny hands, or be a big fat bastard with catchers mitts who can't get off the couch.

 

[Prefect]

What? How does hand size correlate to health and athleticism? You could be in cirque de sole and have tiny hands, or be a big fat bastard with catchers mitts who can't get off the couch.

Someone with odd limbs is likely to have higher than normal levels of growth hormone and other things. There doesn't exist an unathletic dork with a Bruce Campbell jaw. There are papers on scientist making vary reliable predictions of running races based on the runner's ring finger to pointer finger ratios, which is indicative to the amount of testosterone exposed to in the womb. does having a long a long ring finger make you run faster? no but it is indicative of something else.

i am going out on a limb here but find me someone with hams for fist that doesn't have proportionally long arms? both foreman and liston did. Liston had exceptionally long arms and huge fist for his height.

 

[Bert415]

It does seem like a lot of successful boxers do have big hands. That or long arms. Even guys like Floyd or Conor, two guys not known for their reach, have very long reaches for people of their height.

 

[YoungCashMoney]

It does seem like a lot of successful boxers do have big hands. That or long arms. Even guys like Floyd or Conor, two guys not known for their reach, have very long reaches for people of their height.

Granted not the most explosive puncher in history, but me & Floyd have about the same size hands. He's got tiny hands as well, but obviously at 130 could sit down on his punches and get explosive KO's regardless.

 

[Bert415]

Granted not the most explosive puncher in history, but me & Floyd have about the same size hands. He's got tiny hands as well, but obviously at 130 could sit down on his punches and get explosive KO's regardless.

Yeah he does have really long arms though. I don’t think hand size is that important when it comes to power, it probably helps a bit, but I think power really comes from coordination. Tight explosive coordination. Same thing with like throwing a football, people always talk about Aaron Rogers “arm strength” but it’s not like he has some super powered arm, he is just really good at that certain motion of throwing a football. Same thing with punching with power, it’s coordinating you entire body from your feet up to your shoulders, even clenching your fist at the perfect time. Look at Wilder, you can knock his technique all you want, the guy knows how to get everything into his right hand. It’s not like he would win a world arm wrestling championship or bench press 500 pounds, he just has that snap down, Getting everything onto the end of his punches.

 

[aries]

Punch power according to a recent study (I'll include the link below) is a factor of two things: Punch velocity at point of impact and effective mass of the punch. It was found that heavier weights don't punch much slower than lighter weights, heavy weights hit harder as you'd expect and the reason was they had a higher effective punch mass.

Effective punch mass is determined by the size of the boxer and is indicative of how much weight they get into the punch. The average for effective punch mass in the study was around 3kg so we aren't talking about a lot of weight behind a punch but it's more than just the weight of an arm so we can see that getting body weight into the punch is important for power. So having bigger hands would help put more effective mass into the punch but being able to get your body weight into the shot is just as, if not more so, important.

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/10/710

 

[YoungCashMoney]

Yeah he does have really long arms though. I don’t think hand size is that important when it comes to power, it probably helps a bit, but I think power really comes from coordination. Tight explosive coordination. Same thing with like throwing a football, people always talk about Aaron Rogers “arm strength” but it’s not like he has some super powered arm, he is just really good at that certain motion of throwing a football. Same thing with punching with power, it’s coordinating you entire body from your feet up to your shoulders, even clenching your fist at the perfect time. Look at Wilder, you can knock his technique all you want, the guy knows how to get everything into his right hand. It’s not like he would win a world arm wrestling championship or bench press 500 pounds, he just has that snap down, Getting everything onto the end of his punches.

Yep, it's just from perfecting the kinetic energy and maximizing its potential to release all at once at the end of your punch. Starts from the ground in the feet then needs to be controlled through the fist. Some guys are just better naturally at grasping that concept & making all the gears work together perfectly, becoming huge punchers. Deontay Wilder if nothing else has perfected that with his right hand, hes leg a heavyweight Tommy Hearns.

Look at videos of light punchers, then look at videos of heavy punchers. Watch their whole body - it can be seen immediately as to why the lighter puncher has light punches, and why the heavier puncher has power, its a difference in technique.

Watch Paulie Malignaggi throw a left hook, you can clearly see that he isn't connecting his legs with his upper body and its more of an arm punch. Same thing with Tim Bradley.

Then look at Gennady Golovkin, you can see every muscle in his body tense when he lands, they are all working, even the ones in his calf are being noticeably used.

Prince Naseem literally used every bit of his leg strength to lunge into shots - no secret as to why he'd knock guys out the way he did.

 

[mozfonky]

no he didn't at least not all the time, i've seen him look to barely touch guys and put them down, off balance too, guy was just a freak. too bad he couldn't keep his head on straight, would have made some interesting matchups through the years, i don't think he would have beaten a guy like mayweather and he would have his hands full with pac until he catches him.

 

[listrahtes]

no he didn't at least not all the time, i've seen him look to barely touch guys and put them down, off balance too, guy was just a freak. too bad he couldn't keep his head on straight, would have made some interesting matchups through the years, i don't think he would have beaten a guy like mayweather and he would have his hands full with pac until he catches him.

Imo Nas was two levels beneath someone like Floyd or Pac. Above him were fighters like Morales, Barrera...etc and then on top Pac and Mayweather. They would have made him look silly in the ring.

 

[DanMMAleague]

Prince Naseem literally used every bit of his leg strength to lunge into shots - no secret as to why he'd knock guys out the way he did.

Agreed, I was going to say that.

But I also agree that he also hurt many people with other shots that looked innocuous.

I don't think he would have beat Morales at 126 who was the real tough guy of the division at the time imo.

A match up with PAC at 126 would have been very interesting. Nas has the edge in power IMO.

Floyd at 130 would have been too big.

 

[4daLuLZ]

I have abnormally small hands due to a medical disorder I had as a kid, smaller than both my moms & my dads ( who has huge hands ). They aren't pygmy fists by any means, but probably the size of your typical 14 year old boy hand to a certain degree.

Lord.....your poor girlfriend !