25 first round knockouts

I didn’t watch the video but in my mind, Michael Nunn’s first round KO of Sumbu Kalambay was the most surprising. Kalambay was extremely skilled and durable and there was a lot of question about Nunn’s power. It only took a single punch

 

I'm not sure I think of this as the most shocking but I was quite stunned by Michael Bentt's first round KO of Tommy Morrison. At the time Morrison had only lost one fight and that was to Ray Mercer. Four months before the Bentt fight, Morrison had used a beautiful game plan to easily decision George Foreman. Bentt was 10-1 and his best win was a 10 round UD over 14-10-1 Mark Wills. Bentt put Morrison down three times and the fight was over after 1:34.

I realize Morrison did not have Muhammad Ali's chin but the fact is that he fought a lot of hard punchers, Foreman, Ruddock and others and held up quite nicely. This Bentt result was really a shocker.

 

I think Zoomy taking out Cowdell in a single round was a surprise to a lot of people. Nelson wasn't known for blasting people out early at world level and Cowdell's chin and durability, though not iron, weren't considered weaknesses either.

Jose Seys getting rid of Errol Christie in a single round doesn't seem all that surprising now, but shocked a lot of people this side of the pond when it happened. Christie was being talked up as the most naturally gifted fighter the UK had produced in decades and a nailed-on future Middleweight champion. Seys was a bigger man (a Light-Heavyweight by that point) but he was plucked from obscurity and hardly anyone anticipated any problems for the much more lavishly-gifted Christie. Alas, that fight burst the bubble badly and suddenly suggested that Errol's chin might be a little on the tender side - which was proved right later on.

 

Add George Feeney's KO of Tony Willis to these Chris.

 

Not so much at the time because it was before he made his name, but Jack Dempsey’s 1-round KO loss to Fireman Jim Flynn has to be one, even if only in retrospect.

 

Makes me wonder why human punching bags like Jess Willard is in the HOF but Nunn isn't..

 

Most likely a dive.

 

It makes no sense for it to have been one. Where’s the upside to paying an obscure guy to take a dive in a fight in the middle of nowhere? Accounts from the scene indicate otherwise too — he just got caught cold.

 

Taken from-
https://www.theboxingmagazine.com/jack-dempsey-roared-in-the-twenties/

During Dempsey’s early years, he occasionally lost a fight, although there has been much speculation as to whether or not some of these fights were on the “up and up.” Keep in mind, Dempsey was fighting to keep food on the table, send money to his family… and quite simply – to survive. The fight most in question was a first-round kayo defeat against Fireman Jim Flynn. The fight took place on February 13, 1917. It ended moments into the opening round.

Several of Dempsey’s friends insisted that Jack took a dive against Flynn. Dempsey’s own account of the fight seems to greatly conflict with the newspaper and other eyewitness accounts of the fight. Dempsey’s manager was later quoted as saying that Dempsey had, “Dependants aplenty.” There were also plenty of fans in attendance who were of the opinion that the fight was a blatant fix and that Dempsey had taken a dive.

Jim Flynn wasn’t a bum. He was, however, on the downside of his career and had suffered knockout defeats in his previous two starts.

The Flynn loss would be the only knockout defeat on Dempsey’s record.


***His only KO loss on record was to Flynn. If youŕe going to take a dive you will do it in the first round or two ala Sonny Liston in the Ali rematch. Dempsey was a proud many and wouldnt even talk about the fight with his wife, as he knew that she knew he took a dive for more money.
This was long before fighters and the public were obsessed with undefeated records etc, a totally different era.

 

Dempsey wasn’t yet the terror he would become. He went 0-1-1 in his next two fights. Did he take it easy in the draw and lay down against Meehan, lol?

And what did Flynn’s career gain out of this win? Nothing. He had lost six of his previous seven. He’d lose his next two, including the rematch, win two, then lose five in a row. It’s not like a win over an unknown Dempsey was going to put him in the thick of the championship race.

Who is putting down hard-earned money to get a guy to take a dive in a meaningless fight in the middle of nowhere? What’s the upside? To prop up a guy so he could then go back to losing as he was already doing?

If Dempsey was so formidable that Flynn’s crew would pay him to take a dive, why the heck would they then rematch him?

Dempsey probably didn’t want to talk about it because he was embarrassed. When you go from a hobo nobody to the most celebrated athlete on the planet, you don’t want to dwell on the time you got cold-cocked by an also-ran.

There are accounts of the fight that make it pretty clear Dempsey did get KO’d. And none that make it seem like the ending was fishy.

 

Nunn-Kalambay was a shocker, probably the biggest one in a high-profile fight. Carter-Griffith was a definite shock for the way it ended as well. Nobody else did that to Emile.

 

Tommy Burns’ 1st rd KO of the bigger Bill Squires was clear cut, well advertising the power behind little Tommy’s right hand, which landed over and over like a sledge hammer. . One of the more legit and emphatic results you’ll see in the old films. P4P I would say Tommy was a great, very durable little slugger.

 

There are other accounts including from people who knew Dempsey etc that question the fight.

Youŕe not considering the time period. The odds of most fight fans at the time finding out about this were very low, all the more reason to take a dive for enough money. Dempsey was still an unknown and so what if he threw a fight? The goal was getting paid period.

Why not rematch him? Again money. I don think Flynn had much of a ¨crew" again youŕe not taking into consideration the time period. You could ko a man in one state and be arrested for it in another. Thatś why Dempsey had 4 round exhibitions with a guy and then ko him in 1 in another state. Boxing was still perceived as a moral evil in these times.

Dempsey didnt want to talk about having taken a dive for money prior to becoming the heavyweight champion, thatś understandable.