Pull No Punches
"To speak or act with complete honesty and force, holding nothing back."
In boxing, to "pull" a punch means deliberately holding back its full force, throwing it with less than your maximum power, sometimes for training purposes, sometimes to avoid seriously hurting a sparring partner. Someone who "pulls no punches" is doing the opposite: hitting with everything they've got. The figurative sense, speaking bluntly and without softening a harsh truth, spread from the boxing world into general English from the 1930s onward.
Sources: Boxing terminology documented from the early 20th century; figurative extension recorded from the 1930s.
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