A typical top level boxer will have a KO ratio of 60-70 percent on the way up. Then the opposition gets better and the KOs go away. Let's look at all the good fights that just happened and WILL happen: PAC vs Vargas: decision Ward vs Kov: decision LOMA vs Walters: TKO (shocker) Gassiev vs Ledebev: decision Then we have: Cuellas vs mares: likely decision Charlo vs Williams: likely decision Bhop vs Snith: ?? Possible TKO? Jack vs Degale: likely decision Thurman vs Garcia: likely decision It appears that many high level fights go to the scorecards. Krusher Kov was unable to put away the very tricky and durable Chilemba. Bhop and Ward evaded the stoppage. Everyone else got beat up. Even Oscar during his reign at the top. He put away Vargas and Gatti. The rest went to decision! Same for Floyd, Manny.
In a lot of cases the big fights tend to cancel each other out hence a lower KO % plus you often need a decent chin to get to the top (obvious exceptions)
Jack worked Dirrel, Groves and Bute. He also took some of Butes best shots. I'm picking Degale but by 12 round decision
Hopkins fight a possible ko? Hopkins hasn't had a ko in like 20 years and has the best chin in the business. Hopkins by UD is easy money
That's right. Knockouts against lesser competition don't mean much, and knockouts are simply overrated. Elite defenders rarely get knocked out. That's also why I love betting the over when punchers step up in class.
In a nutshell, this. Usually unless you're a ferocious beast or animal (Kovalev, Beterbiev), or the rest of your division is a level below you in skillset (Golovkin, prime Wlad), the highlight reel ko's disappear when you're fighting the higher ranked guys. Even when you're a legit puncher (Thurman), most of the higher level guys may take punishment but know how to ride it out.
Boxers tend to commit to offence less the higher the opposition, with both wary of the others power, add to that top level fighters usually have good whiskers, and know how to survive when hurt, it stands to reason the % of KOs drops off the higher the quality of match-up. Ref less likely to step in to stop bouts early also, they give elite fighter a little longer to recover and that's often enough...
Re Thurman I don't think we can say he's more than a very hard puncher, and his 'One-Time' nickname looks a bit ridiculous and arrogant on him since he's stepped up. He was only 'one-timing' no-hopers earlier in his career. If he was a Matthysse type knockout artist we'd be seeing more one-punch knockouts from him recently, but they haven't happened. At least someone like Gatti when he was a prospect gave himself the vaguer nickname 'Thunder'!
