BoxRec

What KO's do you think rank as the most surprising of all time?

By surprising, I mean fights where one guy is considered a top fighter and tough guy / granite chin, only to see it smashed and him stopped.

Mine are:

Douglas KO of Tyson. Had Mike ever even been dropped in a pro fight prior to this?
Hearns KO of Duran. Duran had just gone the distance with Hagler and was known for having an all time great chin.
Mosley KO of Margarito. People were fearing for Mosley's health only for him to smash the supposed most feared man in boxing to pieces.

Martinez KO of Williams is borderline for me as Williams had been dropped in their first fight.

In terms of jaw dropping knockdowns, Groves first round knockdown of Froch in their first fight was one of the most shocking and unexpected knockdowns I'd ever seen. At the time Sky had Khan and Haye in the studio as pundits and replayed their reactions afterwards which were priceless.

1) Leotis Martin's KO of Sonny Liston - I know Sonny was probably about 93 years old by '69, but it was still surprising to see him get flaked out by Martin. Nobody ever did that to Liston, not even Ali.

2) Michael Watson's KO of Nigel Benn - A truly phenomenal execution of tactics by Watson. Michael fought such a tactically perfect fight that he ended the fight by knocking Benn out with a jab.

3) Audley Harrison's KO of Michael Sprott in the rematch - Harrison was useless in the first fight & was losing the the rematch too, when he produced one of the greatest KOs I've ever seen, right out of the blue. To this day, I don't know how he contorted his Left arm to produce that punch. That was the one time I truly impressed by Harrison.

Another one for the ages that shocked the world - Tarver's KO of Jones Jr.

remember being astonished when khan lost to bredis prescot, although that was probably due to the hype machine in overdrive which I utterly fell for.

littlepug wrote:remember being astonished when khan lost to bredis prescot, although that was probably due to the hype machine in overdrive which I utterly fell for.

Yeah you're right, even though it was always inevitable given he had been down and hurt a few times before. I remember being in a pub when somebody texted the news through to me and I was absolutely desperate to see the footage of it.

cant remember it myself but ive heard honeygahn stopping curry caused a few mouths to drop open !

littlepug wrote:cant remember it myself but ive heard honeygahn stopping curry caused a few mouths to drop open !

Absolutely it did.

That was definitely one of the most surprising KOs of all-time.

With Leonard & Hearns safely out of the way, Curry owned the keys to the weltwerweight kingdom & looked like reigning until he decided he was going up to 154, but Honeyghan wasn't there when the script was written.

johnswan1 wrote:Another one for the ages that shocked the world - Tarver's KO of Jones Jr.

I jumped out of my seat when that happened; so shocked was I.

Jones had looked unbeatable for 15 years, & here he was sparked out by someone called Antonio Tarver!

Jeff Fenech's chin had looked impregnable, then Nelson stopped him, which was a surprise after the first fight..... But light punching Calvin Grove and Phil Holliday ko'd him too.

Weirdly he beat Nelson in a rubber match in 2008 when they were both ancient.

Sanders KO of Wlad surprised me.

Ishida vs Kirkland and Jaro vs Wonjongkam

Tony1244 wrote:Sanders KO of Wlad surprised me.

That one did not shock me.A little surprising how quick it was.

johnswan1 wrote:

littlepug wrote:remember being astonished when khan lost to bredis prescot, although that was probably due to the hype machine in overdrive which I utterly fell for.

Yeah you're right, even though it was always inevitable given he had been down and hurt a few times before. I remember being in a pub when somebody texted the news through to me and I was absolutely desperate to see the footage of it.

I was there for Khan - Prescott and will now trot out the joke I always make about that night:

I haven't seen that many shellshocked Asian faces since the tumultuous days of Partition. There were blokes wombling around the MEN car park looking about as concussed as khan. It was quite funny.

Thanks.

Laporte icing Rocky Lockridge so quickly was a bit surprising. I do think that Lockridges style was perfect for Lapirte, though.

Nunn v Kalambey was a surprise.

I know he could bang anyway but Gonzalez splattering Abner Mares was a shock.

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johnswan1 wrote:Another one for the ages that shocked the world - Tarver's KO of Jones Jr.

I jumped out of my seat when that happened; so shocked was I.

Jones had looked unbeatable for 15 years, & here he was sparked out by someone called Antonio Tarver!

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in a sports bar and when it happened I started hollering and jumping up and down in pure joy. One of the most memorable boxing moments in my life.

It was a corner retirement and not the clean KO I hoped for but Carl Thompson took some unbelievable punches and outlasted David Haye.

Colin Dunne was past his prime but it was a surprise that Kevin Bennett knocked him out.

Postol vs The Machine was a good recent one.

people seriously feared for ali's life in zaire ...

Toney's stoppage of Nunn must have been one too. Had Nunn ever been down before that?

palooka wrote:Nunn v Kalambey was a surprise.

i don't think i've gotten over that one to this day.
kalambay was one of my favorites and for years i was insisting that
was a lucky punch and kalambay could win a rematch.
the curry-honeyghan stoppage was a surprise in terms of the outcome
but not in terms of the flow of the fight. honeyghan was butting and
fighting really dirty and opened a huge gash over curry's eye and curry
wound up quitting on his stool. i don't see that as a real ko for curry,
not like mccallum, which was a real shocker in terms of the flow of that
fight. curry-honeyghan is a little more in the hatton-tsyu category.
both lennox lewis stoppages were surprises. pac stopping de la hoya
was a big surprise. i was surprised they were even fighting and then
for pac to rip dlh apart like that was a shocker.

Marquez/Pacquiao IV

Not sure anyone thought that would end up with Pacquiao face down.

johnswan1 wrote:Another one for the ages that shocked the world - Tarver's KO of Jones Jr.

this and marquez ko over pac

John David Jackson getting sparked by Castro was abit surprising !