“Punching power is spellbinding. You need only to consider the adjectives that accompany it for proof. Words like ‘frightening’ or ‘chilling’ indicate a visceral response to blows that turn a man’s lights out and freeze a crowd. Power produces outcomes people least want to suffer and therefore most want to see. Heavy-handed fighters fascinate because they deal in the same currency as their colleagues while producing more change. Plenty of fighters score knockouts, but power that breaks wills, that leaves men slumped, snoring, or stiff is qualitatively different. There is an element of mystery to this kind of power that is proportionate to its results. The more destructive the result, the less satisfying the explanation. ‘He is a born puncher,’ they say. And there the explanation stops.”

Read RAW POWER: Sergey Kovalev TKO4 Nathan Cleverly on The Cruelest Sport.