Bouts where a fighter who is far ahead, ups the pace to go for a KO late

Tito-Vargas Round 12:smoke:hat

and if you watch that fight again, Vargas' people KNEW Tito was going to come on strong even though he was comfortably ahead...............

Vargas's Corner: "you know he's going to come on strong now"
Tito's Corner: "you're going to give him a beating this round"

 

Joe Louis vs Billy Conn. Conn was easily outboxing Joe Louis but then went for it all late in the fight only to be KO'd in the 13th.

 

Buster Douglas against Tyson. Nearly got himself KO'd, but it paid off dividends two rounds later.

John Tate against Mike Weaver - much to Tate's detriment.

 

The way I saw it, Monzon simply poured it on the whole fight.

 

That's the wrong way round. Arguello-Mancini springs to mind.

 

Havent watched Norton Ali 1 for a long time, but I think its Ferdie Pacheco in the last round saying 'he wants a knockout', not sure Ken was far ahead on the cards though.

 

Vic Darchinyan vs. Christian Mijares is a fine example.

 

leon Spinks in the Olympics.

 

Benitez vs. Leonard. Leonard didn't need the stoppage, but forced it nonetheless.

 

To my mind, one classic example is Ali KO15 Wepner. Muhammad was toying with Chuck until the G.O.A.T. fell down in round nine. Referee Tony Perez ruled this fall as a knockdown. To avenge this indignity, Ali generated a sustained attack through the championship rounds. Finally, with 19 seconds left in round 15, he flattened Wepner with a furious closing assault. Perez waved the count off at seven, but Chuck would not have been able to get back to his feet before the referee's toll of ten.

If Wepner had somehow gotten back up to reach the final bell, judge Jackie Keough's card would have been scored 146-137 Ali, and judge Sam Taormina's card tallied 148-137 Ali, a rather one-sided points spread indeed.

Had Perez dismissed the round nine incident as a slip by Ali, Muhammad would have likely settled for the sort of comfortable decision win he registered later in 1975 against Joe Bugner. Instead, he exerted himself tremendously, and collapsed to the deck after getting his revenge for round nine, much as he would later drop to the floor in Manila to close out this truly spectacular championship year.

Ali had other closing round opportunities in his career, but not specifically like Wepner. Manila was hardly one sided. Bonavena was the result of a single left hook in round 15, not an increase in pace. He let Mathis last the distance when he could have taken Buster out. By his own admission, he took it easy on friend Jimmy Ellis. Perhaps the closest instance to Wepner Muhammad experienced in his career was when he knew he had Shavers beaten in the scoring, but nearly took out Earnie in round 15 anyways.

Shavers himself was involved in a couple of these situations. In his first bout with Larry Holmes, he was getting shut out when Holmes went for the kill in round 12. As with Ali, the final bell saved Earnie from a stoppage defeat.

Earnie dominated Tiger Williams through nine rounds, hammering him incessantly against the ropes with right hands to the body. Going into the final round, all Shavers had to do to win was get to the final bell. At the outset of round ten, Williams finally went on the attack, and nearly took Earnie out. After taking a standing knockdown, all Shavers had to do to win was hold on. Instead, he went back on the attack, and Tiger finally dropped to the floor with 19 seconds left.

 

Louis-Conn comes to mind

 

Meldrick Taylor vs. Julio Cesar Chavez, he paid for it unfortunately.