Hardest Knockout to watch (that didn't end in tradegy)

Boy I agree with that. I couldn't believe the ref let that go on . Duran could have killed him.

 

Ingemar Johanson's ko of Floyd Patterson. When Floyd arose once and began wandering off in the wrong direction Ingo blasted him with a blindside right hand.
Probably the worst single incident of officiating I've ever seen.

 

The rematch that left Ingo's foot quivering was a bit scary too.

 

Naseem Hamed vs Augie Sanchez

 

Its not a KO but a stoppage. Duran vs Moore. He beat him so bad just about everybody was screaming at the ref to stop it, and the ref for whatever reason seemed to be mesmerized, even seemed to enjoy it if you look at his face.

One of the worst beatings ive seen. It was clear Moore wasnt going to win a few rounds earlier. It could have been stopped after 6, should have been stopped after the brutal 7th and the 8th round was just a slaughter, reminiscent of the gladiator battles that went to the death in ancient rome.

 

and blood dribbling out the side of his mouth ... like maybe there was a brain injury involved. I'm sure that fight was connected with his later dementia.

 

Pernell Whitaker vs Hurtado - I'll go and watch the fight back but from memory Sweet Pea was behind on the cards and had been knocked down a couple of times then he rallied in the 11th to win by KO. The barrage of punches landed on Hurtado against and through the ropes looks even scarier when the ref stops the fight and Hurtado has this haunting look. I'm a big Sweet Pea fan but I've never enjoyed watching that finishing sequence.

 

Watching Joppy beat the hell out of a 47 year old Duran at 160 and celebrate like he beat Prime Duran was terrible.

 

Now that is one SOB ko.
Still not sure Herol recovered from it.

 

The Green ko scared Leonard.

 

I saw it live on TV.
I thought Leonard killed him .

 

I can imagine, I know Sugar has spoken about this, how he really thought Green was seriously hurt or worse.

 

It was a true Bizzarro World fight in many ways.

They lured Duran to Lou’s hometown with the idea of stealing the title.

How, you ask?

Well, they had a guy who could run and figured with the right edge he could do that all night and snatch a (probably crooked) decision.

What edge?

They specially constructed a ring for the fight. I’ve seen it estimated as being anywhere from 25 feet rope to rope, to up to 30 feet.

There was also, I’m pretty sure from memory, either no or very thin padding. Basically they stretched the canvas over the plywood that covered the boards that made up the floor. A ‘fast’ ring — no padding so as not to slow Lou down or wear out his legs as he ran like he was in the Olympic 100 meters.

Interestingly, if you’ve watched the fight: Bizzarro appeared to have knocked Roberto Duran down for a flash knockdown … and it wasn’t credited. Not ruled a slip, iirc, just he bounced right back up and they kept fighting as if nothing happened.

I started a thread on the knockdown/no knockdown years ago:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/did-lou-bizzarro-knock-down-roberto-duran.587153/

 

That ref was appalling - not just for allowing the fight to go on as long as did - but also for what he was letting Duran blatantly get away with - thumbing, lacings - the ref did absolutely nothing about it.

 

And it was bad enough to be letting Ingo hit an opponent who was clearly out on his feet - but Johannson also landed several illegal and highly dangerous shots to the back of Floyd’s head.

How Patto was still on his feet at the end of that fight - I will never know.