A knockout is unique in all of sport. The walk-off home run in baseball, the halfcourt heave in basketball, football’s “Hail Mary” touchdown, all good. But nothing is as sudden, or as certain, as a haymaker.
It’s not just a flailing fist striking an unfortunate chin. The knockout is strength, skill, athleticism, bravery and timing — conspiring as concussive biomechanics. Today, with medical documentation on the damage that comes with repeated blows to the head, knockouts (KOs) are viewed through a different lens. We acknowledge the inherent cruelty of “the fight game.” Yet we can still recognize the beauty in what was poetically christened “the sweet science.”
All great KOs possess a signature quality. Some, like the “Suzie Q,” are denoted by the punch’s name. Others, such as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” come from the fight’s promoter. Many reflect the career arcs — some heroic, others tragic — of the combatants. This collection of the 30 best knockout punches in history represents boxing at its best. Tape up your hands, lace on the gloves, and in the words of famed referee Mills Lane, “Let’s get it on!”
Bottom Line: Patterson vs. Johansson
The second of three great fights between the American and the Swede is remembered for the hardest punch of Floyd Patterson’s distinguished career. In their first meeting, Johansson had floored Patterson seven times to earn a TKO and become just the fifth heavyweight champion born outside of the U.S. His powerful right hand, known as “The Hammer of Thor,” helped establish him as an 8-5 favorite in the rematch.
It connected solidly in Round 2, but Patterson didn’t go down. He shook the cobwebs, and as his head cleared, his confidence grew. In Round 5, he hurt the champion with a right to the jaw, then connected with a second left hook that reached Johansson’s chin and knocked him down. Though he rose at 9, bleeding from the mouth and cut over one eye, the end was near. Patterson hit Johansson with three body shots, then ended it with a lunging, legendary left hook known as “The Gazelle Punch.”
Bottom Line: Zale vs. Graziano I
A trio of fights between the brawling middleweights stands as one of the great rivalries in boxing history. Rocky Graziano, the rough, tough kid from New York was a 24-year-old sensation and a crowd favorite. Champion Tony Zale, 32, was making his first title defense following four years in the Navy. The two went at it hammer and tongs and a third of the way through the bout all but belonged to Graziano.
Zale was in such trouble in Round 5 that he could hardly get to his corner, his rubbery legs propelled by sheer will. In Round 6, Zale appeared to be a beaten fighter, bleeding badly from the mouth and nose. But he showed the heart of a champion to keep his title. Zale fired a right to the body, so powerful it moved Graziano backward, then followed with a flashing left hook to Graziano’s chin. Referee Ruby Goldstein counted Graziano out, pinning his arms to his sides in a protective embrace as he protested.
Bottom Line: Dempsey vs. Firpo
Eleven knockdowns in two rounds stand as a testament to this fight’s vaunted status in boxing lore. Luis Firpo, the first heavyweight Hispanic contender, was knocked down seven times in Round 1, but the Argentinean rose to send Jack Dempsey through the ropes, out of the ring and down onto the typewriters on press row. There was little question that Round 2 would produce a victor — the pace was unsustainable — but which fighter’s arm would be raised in victory was anyone’s guess.
At the outset, the 187-pound Dempsey pursued the bigger Firpo with a fury, backing up his reputation as the “Manassa Mauler.” In contrast, the “Wild Bull of the Pampas” was leg-weary, his punches ineffectual. A volley of lefts felled Firpo for the eighth time. He gamely rose to his feet and unleashed a desperate right hand. But Dempsey ducked and countered, tattooing the challenger with a 1-2 combo — a left that did the real damage, and then a right for good measure, offered as Firpo was going down.
Bottom Line: Foreman vs. Frazier I
Joe Frazier (29-0, 25 KOs) arrived as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The Philadelphia fighter hadn’t been defeated in nearly a decade, when he was outpointed in the 1964 U.S. Olympic trials. His strong chin and signature left hook was viewed as an unbeatable combination. But Frazier departed the Caribbean a shattered shadow of his former self. He was the victim of six savage knockdowns in less than two rounds, the sound of Howard Cosell’s famed call “Down goes Fraz-ier! Down goes Fraz-ier” echoing into the night — and boxing history.
Each of George Foreman’s fearsome knockdowns was devastating and unique, a demonstration of power that the sport had never seen: a right hook, a right uppercut, a four-punch combo, a straight right, a left hook and then the right-handed half hook-half uppercut that lifted the 214-pound Frazier clean off his feet and handed the crown to the challenger.
7. The Fight: Foreman – Moorer
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The fighters: George Foreman and Michael Moorer
Date: Nov. 5, 1994
Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena – Las Vegas, Nevada
What was at stake: World Heavyweight Championship
How it ended: Foreman wins by KO at 2:03 in Round 10 of 12
Quote: “I’m almost 50, but this is what I do, all I do. This is my business.” — Foreman
The knockout blow: Chopping right
Bottom Line: Foreman vs. Moorer
George Foreman was a different person than the man who’d worn the heavyweight crown in the 1970s. Now 45, and a thick 250 pounds, he was an ordained minister and a celebrity pitchman. As a fighter, he’d become a novelty act. But he still possessed the atomic right hand that had devastated the division decades earlier. Michael Moorer entered the ring a 3-to-1 favorite, and he was being paid more than twice Foreman’s purse.
Fittingly, he dominated much of the first nine rounds, peppering Foreman with his right jab. What most believed before the fight — that Foreman’s only chance to win would be via knockout — was becoming manifest. But with a thunderbolt right hand, driven purposefully between Moorer’s gloves in the 10th, Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion in history, reclaiming the prize he’d lost 20 years earlier. He kneeled in a neutral corner saying a prayer as Moorer’s cornermen rushed to their fallen fighter.
Bottom Line: Douglas vs. Tyson
The match took place early on a Sunday morning in Japan to accommodate a Saturday night TV audience in the U.S., and Mike Tyson looked sluggish from the start. Armed with a 12-inch reach advantage, Buster Douglas, a 42-1 underdog, controlled the fight with his strong left jab. Tyson’s power appeared in Round 8 when he dropped Douglas with a right uppercut. But the challenger beat the count. A round later, Douglas touched up Tyson with a solid left that foretold of disaster.
Midway through the 10th, Douglas lasered six left straight jabs at an incoming Tyson, then straightened him up with a stunning right uppercut. A flashing 1-2 combo had Tyson on the verge of falling, and as he began to tilt, Douglas stepped forward with a punishing straight left. The image of Tyson fumbling for his mouthpiece, and clumsily shoving it in sideways before being counted out in a daze, defined the end of an era. The fight is still remembered as one of the most spectacular upsets in sports history.
Bottom Line: Marciano vs. Walcott I
Bill Achatz / AP Photo
Eleven months after knocking out the great Joe Louis (in the locker room afterwards he wept when he visited the ex-champ), Rocky Marciano fought for “Jersey Joe” Walcott’s title. Though 38, Walcott was a formidable fighter, possessing all the tools. He floored Marciano with a left hook in the first, the first time the “Brockton Blockbuster” had been down.
Needing a knockout to win, Marciano introduced Walcott to “Suzie Q,” the punch he’d named in honor of his diminutive wife. Thirty seconds into the 13th round Marciano backed up Walcott and delivered one of the most devastating shots in boxing history, a short overhand right to the side of Walcott’s chin. The title changed hands in an instant. Walcott sank to a knee, his left arm hooked over the middle rope, before falling forward to the canvas. The KO was Immortalized by famed sports photographer Herb Scharfman in an image titled the “Hardest Punch of All Time.” Marciano is the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated, a perfect, now mythical, 49-0.
Bottom Line: Ali vs. Liston II
The second bout was a rematch of the legendary night in Miami, Florida, that saw champion Sonny Liston dethroned by a precocious Cassius Clay (he’d hadn’t yet changed his name), transforming the 1960 Olympic champion into a boxing superstar and cultural icon. The image that defined the second fight — Muhammad Ali standing over a prone Liston, shouting “get up and fight, sucker!” — is one of sport’s most iconic moments.
Ali caught the 218-pound Liston with a flash right-hand that was so swift it was dubbed the “Phantom Punch.” It was almost invisible to the naked eye, and led to speculation that Liston (he had connections to organized crime) had taken a dive. Close examination in slow motion revealed it to be a chopping counterpunch to a pawing Liston left-handed jab, made more powerful because Liston strode into the blow. As the fateful, historic sequence began, Ali’s right hand was low, not in a position to strike. But he lifted it in tandem with Liston’s miss, momentarily planted his back foot, then drove his 210 pound, 6-foot-3 frame forward. His right hand drilled the left side of Liston’s cheek. The menacing brawler and ex-con went down, rolled over on his back and stayed flat — staring blankly, eyes twitching — as Ali taunted his fallen foe.
