Yes, you must delay the first jab to make him dodge by a little bit, otherwise he will take longer to jab you

Mpap made a video about this. It's called "Why the Perfect speedrun of Punch-Out!! will never happen" It should be a good informational video for people interested in running the game. Take a look:

GG!

Don 1 33.82

Von Kaiser Starless 1:15.99. 100% beatable

This isn't the record, but it is the only starless run with video proof to my knowledge.

I use a pro controller for those reasons

Nah that’s okay. Impressive though that you can get a time as good as that even with the Switch’s input lag.

Is the switch where you got your 17:28?

There are 9 main platforms, including NES, Switch, and Wiiu that are acceptable for speedruns.

You can do split overlay on PC or on the video feed of your platform. Take this sentence with a grain of salt; I'm not very experienced. Probably best to just join the discord if you have questions.

I'd say just try and improve your setup sometime in the future so you can submit runs. Definitely not too hard to do.

No rush

It’s just a totally reasonable thing to expect video proof for certain claims

No offense but you should actually submit a recorded run instead of just expecting everyone to believe that your times are legit

As for the Macho strategy, check a tutorial for him. They’re on the discord server and on SRC

This sounds like you still have to time the last punch manually in order to beat him. Also, when saying "uppercuts" I think you mean jabs because it's only possible to get one star before he backs up at 0:40. You do seem to be describing a buffer that already exists.

When the clock hits 0:38, buffer two face punches. If Joe beeps twice, throw two left gut punches and one right gut punch. If he beeps 4 times, buffer four left gut punches.

Or, staring from 0:00, you can buffer 22 face punches followed by the strat above.

Maybe try and find a more reliable setup? Idk.

Join the game's Discord, and yeah it's still active.