To your first question, almost certainly. If not at exactly his peak strength, then certainly close enough to it.
The problem is landing them on target. Most adult males can be trained to throw a hard punch with their favoured hand. It’s a skill that you learn and refine, being careful to land the blow effectively as the force you land with starts to overtake your hand's ability to take the force.
Mike can still crush fools with those hooks and uppercuts, but not for long.
The second question is nuanced. Strength and Power are not the same thing. Earnie Shavers was powerful. Joe Frazier was powerful, Mike Tyson is powerful.
Strength is the maximal force your muscle contraction allows you to generate. It relies on muscle strength, tendon and ligament strength and flexibility, bone density etc. Genetics and training determine this.
Power is how quickly you can generate your maximal strength. You can see why this would be important for boxing (or many sport, really).
Strength on its own isn’t overly useful in boxing. A prime example?
If you don’t recognise the above figure, you’re easily forgiven. He is a one-time heavyweight also-ran Seth ‘Mayhem’ Mitchell. He was a decorated College football player with a much-lauded 500lb bench press.
In fact, it was this powerlifting feat that was brought up as a point of pride during the build-up to his clash with the always entertaining Chirs Arreola.
A 500lb bench? Seth would bulldoze Arreola, right?
In real life, it didn’t buy him a round.
Seth was Strong, and Chris was powerful.
