Here are 5 of the best,feel free to post your favourite 1 Julia Cesar Chavez v Meldrick Taylor 2 Jake LaMotta v Laurent Dauthille 3 Mike Weaver v John Tate 4 Carlos Palomino v Armando Nunez 5 Ray Leonard v Wilfred Benitez
Muhammad Ali vs Chuck Wepner Salvador Sanchez vs Azumah Nelson Marco Antonio Barrera vs Kennedy McKinney Terence Crawford vs Jose Benavidez
Not a knockout, but Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez 3. Izzy dropped Rafael with about 10 seconds or so left in the final round, and ended up winning a SD by one point.
I may be stretching a point since two of these fights were stopped with more than a minute (but with less than 2 minutes!) left in the fight On March 24, 1932, referee Gunboat Smith awarded Billy Petrolle a TKO victory against former featherweight champion Christoper (Battling) Battalino at 1:29 in the 12th and final round. It was the only time that Battalino was ever stopped. On December 7, 1970, Muhammad Ali stopped Oscar Bonavena in the 15th round with 57 seconds remaining. Then welterweight champ Virgil Akins stopped Tombstone Smith on August 20, 1958 at 1:18 of the 10th and final round of their non-title fight. Akins was way behind on all three cards at the time.
Much as I loved Benitez watching Leonard finally stalkBenitez and beat him down was satisfying! those shots had bad intention all over them and Wilfred succumbed to a force of nature Leonard was truly a monster.
Toney looked wicked that night. Pop, pop, pop. He mixed up his shots well, some he threw in succession with only a little on them and snuck a hard one in sometimes as the first, second or third shot and you could only tell by the reaction he got. I wish James had fought and beat Hopkins.
Excellent thread idea. Difficult to think of fights off the top that ended strictly in the last minute. Best I can do at the moment:- Jeff Harding vs Dennis Andries 1, stopped at 1:23 of the 12th and final round in favour of Harding. Slight twist on the theme: Stanley Ketchel knocked out Phila Jack O’Brien in the 10th and final round of their first fight. They KO came within the last 10 seconds so although O’Brien wouldn’t have arisen within 10 secs, he wasn’t officially counted out - a classic saved by the bell scenario. It was an ND bout so no official verdict rendered but Ketchel won the newspaper decision.
I'll try and name some that haven't been mentioned. Paul Ingle vs Mbuelo Motile Muhammad Ali vs Oscar Bonavena Carl Thompson vs Terry Dunstan Mark Prince vs Michael Gale Lastly Emmanuel Augustus was literally KO'ed with like 5 seconds to go, but i suspect that he took a dive. I forget the fighter he fought though.