Nano-Biotechnology

How Powerful Is a Boxing Champion's Fist? It's Like Being Hit By a Horse at Full Speed

Engineers prove it's really a mighty blow

By Lucian Dorneanu, Science Editor

26th of June 2007, 09:50 GMT

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Hatton is capable of landing a right-handed punch with around 400Kg - nearly half a tonne - of instantaneous force behind it

The impact force has the greatest effect when it's applied over a short time period and it is equal to the mass of the hitting object times the acceleration. This means that a stone weighing one kilogram (2.2 pounds) moving at 50 m/s (1600 ft/s) will have the same impact force as a 10 grams rock moving at

500 m/s.

A team of engineers at the University of Manchester tested the impact force of a boxer, to see if it's as devastating as his name. The Undefeated Light-Welterweight and Welterweight World Champion Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton was put to a series of tests to determine exactly how powerful his blow is.

The experiment was carried out at the request of ITN Sport, who wanted to see exactly how hard the Hitman can hit. The team, led by Dr Qingming Li worked with biomechanics equipment specialists Biosense Medical Ltd to measure the strength and speed of the boxer's hits.

The results are scary for the future opponents of the Hitman, for the collected data proved he's capable of delivering a right-handed punch with 400 kg (900 pounds) of force behind it.

To keep it simple, this is ten times more instantaneous force than an average person with no boxing expertise is capable of generating. It's like being hit by a stud galloping toward you at 32 mph (50 km/h), the maximum recorded speed of the boxer's fist.

Ouch! Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton is now training for his world title fight at his category, against Jose Castillo. His opponent will have less than one tenth of second reaction time, when the Hitman's fist at full power will be flying through the air toward his face.

Dr Li was thrilled by the results of the applications, declaring that "As one of the country' s top universities for engineering, we were delighted to be challenged to come up with a way of measuring Ricky' s formidable punching prowess."

"The level of force he generated was quite astonishing. It was certainly a very different project from the type we usually work on, but it does demonstrate the expertise and versatility we have within the department."

TAGS:

impact | force | speed

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