There's a difference between a TKO and a KO, and I'm curious as to who was truly the best at leaving their opponant out cold. Foster seemed to be a pro at this... In more than one of his high profile matches he left his guy freakin' stretched out for a good long time. Earnie Shavers very very very rarely TKO'ed a man... A quick look at his record shows ungodly amounts of pure KO wins. Who else comes to mind?
Well I think say George Foreman is a little bit over rated as a knockout puncher. Dont get me wrong, but more often than not, he would would need to drop his foe a lot of times to force the ref to stop the fight. Most of his kos were relly TKO. Norton, Fraizer, Chalvo, all these guys were TKO. I rank Joe Louis and even Marciano over Foreman as a "Puncher". Because these guys left there man out cold more often than the TKO. Sure they get the TKO here or there as with the case of Schmeling II and LarSarza II. BUT most of there fights were the ko route, and most often than not, they were out cold when the ref counted ten.
I tend to think more in terms of specific instances. SRR-Fullmer, Benitez-Hope, SRL-Green, Patterson-Johansson II, Weaver-Tate, Louis-Braddock. Marciano certainly laid out Vingo, Layne, Mathews and Walcott, four quality opponents. Ditto Foster with Tiger and Quarry. Referees can be quick to halt action, and administer standing eight counts today. Louis-Conn I would have been halted before Louis was finished reeling off his knockout combination, and the same likely applies to Louis-Walcott II. With Marciano, the referee wouldn't have had a chance to react before Rocky put his opponents out. Teo Stevenson scored an awful lot of clean knockouts in the amateurs, an environment where a ten second knockdown usually can only happen as the result of a single punch. Amateur boxing could offer up a number of good candidates. (I don't follow it, since they started mandating headgear which encourages boxers to take a punch rather than avoid it.)
Terry Norris too. I remember him getting sparked something pretty. He stays down though don't he? Man, I love a good Jackson shot. It looked devastating. You could tell what he was throwing was BAD! I'm talking before it lands you know the punch is wrong.com.
my p4p hardest puncher. it was truly scary to see a man his size and wieght turn men into 154 pound hunk of flesh crashing to the floor....with the out stretched right hand for style points. but people forget you can get tko when a man is gargling ,tongue-out, legs shaking...becuase the ref doesnt need a count out when it's that bad. i think the gatti-gamache fight is a tko:blood even though gamache wasnt getting up any time soon. or boxers are counted out but totally awake and ready like the benn-mcClellen fight when gerald took a knee (at the time he looked like he gave up but you can see how much courage it took him to do that).
You are right about Teddy Norris, the poor man did pretty good in the 1st round before getting caught up by Julian straight right... classic Jackson knock out's pattern
The two most spectacular example of guys who "leave 'em out cold" are Bob Foster and Julian Jackson. Rocky Marciano's all time right hand bomb on Jersey Joe rates up there, but on a consistant, serial basis, Foster and Jackson are the tops. I was also impressed with some of Danny "Little Red" Lopez's ko's.
Terry Norris actually made it to his feet, stumbling, against Julian Jackson. I think the fall to the canvas woke him back up. Jackson's most brutal KO was the Graham one.