*** NEW SURVEY - Top 25 Most Spectacular KOs - CLOSED

This is just a rough draft atm not really in order and need to edit aswell

1 Thomas Hearns KO 2 Roberto Duran
2 Julian Jackson KO 4 Herol Graham
3 Buster Douglas KO 10 Mike Tyson
4 Manny Pacquiao KO 2 Ricky Hatton
5 Michael Nunn KO 1 Sumbu Kalambay
6 Sugar Ray Robinson KO 5 Gene Fulmer 2
7 Jersey Joe Walcott KO 7 Ezzard Charles 3
8 Mike Weaver KO 15 John Tate
9 Roy Jones KO 4 Virgil Hill
10 Lennox Lewis KO 4 Hasim Rahman 2
11 Antonio Tarver KO 2 Roy Jones Jr 2
12 Juan Manuel Marquez KO 6 Manny Pacquiao 4
13 Sergio Martinez KO 2 Paul Williams 2
14 Floyd Patterson KO 6 Ingemar Johansson 2
15 Bob Foster KO 4 Dick Tiger
16 Vince Pettaway KO 6 Simon Brown
17 Mike Tyson KO 1 Michael Spinks
18 Donald Curry KO 2 Milton McCrory
19 Ray Mercer KO 5 Tommy Morrison
20 Sugar Ray Leonard KO 4 Dave Boy Green
21 Michael Spinks KO 4 Marvin Johnson
22 Pernell Whitaker KO 11 Diosbelys Hurtado
23 Kennedy McKinney KO 11 Welcome Ncita 1
24 Nonito Donaire KO 2 Fernando Montiel
25 James Toney KO 12 Prince Charles Williams

 

Although I am very biased, I have managed to create a list that is at least somewhat varied. I think you can see that I have a preference for older HW fights. Because my favorite punches are left hooks and uppercuts, and i am a big fan of explosive knockouts, clean combinations, and clear 1 punch knockouts, I could have filled the entire list with Tyson, Patterson, Louis, Morrison, Foreman, Jones Jr. and Povetkin. But i tried my best to give it a little mix.

I intentionally left out some obvious ones. Partly because they are so similar to each other, but also because I wanted to avoid duplicate mentions. Furthermore, it was also important to me to evaluate only the immediate KO, not the effect hits or the set up from previous rounds. I think there are some KO's that were actually overrated because the whole fight itself was so entertaining.

Also, I had a really hard time seeing such fine sportsmen as Patterson or Norton hanging helplessly on the ropes and taking unnecessary punches. Therefore: Louis - Schmeling 2 and Tua - Ruiz must be enough ;-)

 

1. Floyd Patterson KO5 Ingemar Johansson (2. Fight)
2. Thomas Hearns TKO2 Roberto Duran
3. Julian Jackson KO4 Herol Graham
4. Roy Jones Jr. KO4 Virgil Hill
5. Jersey Joe Walcott KO7 Ezzard Charles
6. Gerald McClellan KO5 Julian Jackson (2.Fight)
7. Matthew Saad Muhammad KO4 Lottie Mwale
8. Mike Weaver KO15 John Tate
9. Donovan Ruddock TKO4 Michael Dokes
10. Sonny Liston KO1 Albert Westphal
11. Ezzard Charles KO2 Bob Satterfield
12. Mike Tyson TKO1 Reggie Gross
13. Joe Frazier KO2 Bob Foster
14. George Foreman TKO2 Boone Kirkman
15. Joe Louis KO1 Max Schmeling
16. Max Baer TKO10 Max Schmeling
17. Andy Lee KO3 Carl Daniels
18. Sugar Ray Leonard KO4 Dave Green
19. Ken Norton KO3 Randy Stephens
20. Oscar De La Hoya TKO6 Ricardo Mayorga
21. Sugar Ray Robinson KO5 Gene Fullmer
22. Alexander Povetkin KO7 Mahmoud Charr
23. Arthur Abraham KO12 Jermain Taylor
24. Earnie Shaver KO1 Jimmy Ellis
25. Tommy Morrison TKO6 Donovan Ruddock

Some extra wich i would like to pick, but didn't fit the regulations

Derrick Jefferson – Maurice Davis (Journeyman)
Mike Tyson – Michael Johnson (Journeyman)
Floyd Patterson – Clayton Jones (1951 Golden Gloves)

 

Interesting to see the Floyd Patterson amateur mention as there are a couple I’d have considered if the amateurs weren’t out of bounds:

Leon Spinks KO 3 Sixto Sofia, 1976 light heavyweight Olympic final (Leon flattens the Cuban with a right seconds after Howard Cosell observes ‘Spinks is without skills in there’ and … BOOM.

Teofilo Stevenson KO 1 John Tate, 1976 heavyweight Olympic semifinal (Teo lands a straight right, ref steps in to give a standing eight count, John wanders over to a corner in a complete daze and sits down while he’s counted out).

Teofilo Stevenson KO 3 Duane Bobick, 1972 heavyweight Olympic final (Teo beats Bobick pillar to post but the final right hand looks like he hit Bobick with a hammer … like it went straight through his head, which just rattled back and forth as he crumpled to the canvas).

 

I am surprised by the low ranking of:
Rocky Marciano KO 13 Jersey Joe Walcott

 

I’ve sketched out a list of about 30 KOs in no order that I’ll need to whittle down to 25 and rank. And then I’ll see some on other peoples’ lists and go ‘dang, how did I forget that one’ and end up monkeying around with it.

I’ll wait to post until I settle on an order and which 25 make the cut.

 

Yeah that's a savage one. It is an epic KO and also impressing, and the fight itsself is an absolute classic. I tried to mix it up a bit and leave out many obvious ones. I saw this KO about a 100 times and i think there are some KO's that are more "spectacular". This feinting a left and hit with that cross move isnt't really rare. There are so many similar (Tyson-Botha, Louis-Braddock, even Foreman-Moorer ) I feel the KO Marciano-Louis is more spectacular, even though the walcott KO is more "epic" and the fight is much more historically signifficant.

 

Completely agree. It’s why it didn’t make my list and neither did Robinson-Fullmer. Both great KOs but not as ‘spectacular’ as others. Under different criteria, they’d both be top ten.

 

Benitez/ Hope
Palomino/ Green
Fury/Whyte
Cooper/Erskine
Torres/Pastrano
Charles/ Satterfield
Tyson/Spinks

 

The first two I thought you were looking over my shoulder.

 

Spooky !!!
stay safe buddy.

 

Is not it:
Alexander Povetkin TKO5 Dillian Whyte
above

 

One thing you can say for ol’ Dave ‘Boy’ Green, when the man went down he went down like he had been shot by a sniper. Leonard also had a picture-perfect KO of him.

 

1. Vincent Pettway KO6 Simon Brown
2. Matthew Saad Muhammad KO4 Lotte Mwale
3. Lee Roy Murphy KO12 Chisanda Mutti
4. Rocky Marciano KO13 Jersey Joe Walcott
5. Julian Jackson KO4 Herol Graham
6. Victor Callejas KO7 Loris Stecca 2
7. Thomas Hearns KO2 Roberto Duran
8. Julian Jackson KO3 Buster Drayton
9. Ray Robinson KO3 Rocky Graziano
10. Donald Curry KO2 Milton McCrory
11. Prudencio Cardona KO1 Antonio Avelar
12. Joe Louis KO2 Johnny Paycheck
13. Ray Robinson KO5 Gene Fullmer
14. Wilfred Benitez KO12 Maurice Hope
15. Jose Luis Ramirez KO4 Edwin Rosario
16. Thomas Hearns KO2 Pipino Cuevas
17. Ray Leonard KO4 Dave Green
18. Joe Louis KO4 Max Baer
19. Joe Louis KO11 Jersey Joe Walcott
20. Michael Spinks KO4 Marvin Johnson
21. Marvin Hagler KO3 Thomas Hearns
22. Michael Carbajal KO7 Humberto Gonzalez
23. Salvador Sanchez KO8 Wilfredo Gomez
24. Rocky Lockridge KO1 Roger Mayweather
25. Buster Douglas KO10 Mike Tyson