Ivan Drago and his 2000 PSI punch
Why did Stallone write in such a moronic development? Ivan's 2000 PSI punch would have exploded his arm upon impact, not to mention his opponent's head.
shareThe "PSI" part was most likely a goof on Stallone's (or someone's) part. The old Russian guy said that "a normal heavyweight averages 700 pounds of pressure per square inch", and in that first demo for the press, Drago's punch was 1,850 PSI, which means he punches about 2.64 times harder than a "normal heavyweight".
700 PSI is way too high for a "normal heavyweight", or for anyone else for that matter. But if you change PSI to just pounds (pound-force, AKA: lbf), then 700 is about right. For example:
A study of 70 boxers found elite-level fighters could punch with an average of 776 pounds of force. Another study of 23 boxers showed elite fighters were able to punch more than twice as hard as novices, the hardest hitter generating almost 1,300 pounds of force.
So Stallone (or someone) probably did research it but someone confused lbf with PSI. If you just ignore the PSI part, then it becomes a lot more believable. In that case, the "1,850 pounds" at the press demonstration is only about 42% more force than the hardest puncher in the above-mentioned study. His highest result, shown later in the movie during a training montage, was 2,150. 1,850 to 2,150 lbf isn't really a stretch by Hollywood standards when establishing how formidable the giant roided-up Russian villain is, and it isn't blatantly impossible like 1,850 to 2,150 PSI is (2,150 PSI would translate to 8,600 lbf assuming 4 square inches of area on the front of the boxing glove, which would be like Spider-Man strength or something). share