BoxRec

....I don't care who they are'.

A boxing cliche as well oiled as the chip fat around Kerry Katona's lower lip, spoken by or on behalf of a plethora of Brit fighters from Rhodes to Bruno, Takaloo to Alexander, Neary to Ellis (ahem).

Has any previously domestic level British fighter who hyped up their own punching power ever actually managed to knock out a genuine world class opponent?

Which means Lennox and Nigel don't count.

Kevin Leushing came close(ish) with Tito

Good shout. I forgot that. He should've gone for broke.

Michael Bennt was British(ish) and he tarred and feathered Tommy Morrison in their brief encounter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PfebFTGemg

Dont think he was really hyped as a banger in the build up, however.

Wayne Alexander wobbled Harry Simon briefly didnt he?

Couldnt capitalise on it though.

No one outside of Europe thought that Lloyd Honeygan had what it took until he went to Atlantic City and beat the crap out of Don Curry. He made his power tell in that fight.

Henry Wharton was famed for his left hook howitzer - didnt he briefly stiffen Nigel Benn's legs when they met?

Cooper dropping Ali

The problem with domestic bangers who work on the premise of 'If I catch them right, they're going down' is that on a world level the power shot needs to be set up properly - its not just a case of slinging over a right hand and catching a quality operator napping.

Whilst they may have the weight of dig in their punch to knock out anyone in theory, they generally lack the ability and know how to make the weight of punch count against truly skilled operators.

Hence the lack of ready examples.

Punching hard is the easy bit, landing them is a different kettle of fish

Coco wrote:Punching hard is the easy bit, landing them is a different kettle of fish

Exactly what I was trying to say Coco, you just put it far better than I could!

Well this is a tough one to assess - cause if they KO a world class opponent, then they themselves are world class?

Graham Earl vs Kastidis (or is Earl beyond domestic level?)

Neil Sinclair vs Santos.

big frank worth a shout rocked tyson and lewis . also bingo had winky on the back foot all night , more than he normal does!

TerribleTerry wrote:Wayne Alexander wobbled Harry Simon briefly didnt he?

Couldnt capitalise on it though.

He landed one full on, massive shot that would have decked a lot of ppl. It definitely prevented Simon from walking straight through him, until the fight became one sided in Simon's favour again.

Enzo Macc is a big believer in his own power, but it is yet to figure on the world stage.

I remember well the hardest punchest cruiserweight stuff that was coming from his camp.

All fighters of Enzo's size carry a big straight punch, enough to deck the other fella. But as others point out, power is only good when coupled with accuracy and the ability to land it around the obstacles.

I'd say some of the most accurate punchers around at the moment are obviously Floyd, along with Guzman, Calderon and maybe Marquez.

But surprisingly none of them are true ko artists, perhaps because of their weight.

Haye is pretty good, but the last big fella to be truly powerful harnessed with accuracy was a prime Mike Tyson. Some of his body shots and uppercuts were tremendous, he could really get it right behind their elbow or up through the guard.

Froch has a fair bit of accuracy from power shots, especially that uppercut from out of range which is a bit freaky. Abraham also carries some explosive accuracy at times and that could make him a dark horse against Pavlik.

Wenton and Clarke threw some big punches v Barrera and Vargas, but did they wobble them? Seem to remember both having a little bit of success, though not much! Certainly didn't put either of them down, and took systematic poundings themselves, but both had a go.

How about Bruno v Tyson? He wobbled him in the first....

Naseem Hamed is the only person I can think of to do it (in the last 10 years) to genuine world class fighters, even if they were past their best.

(I know the thread said domestic level)

TerribleTerry wrote:Kevin Leushing came close(ish) with Tito

But didn't Tito go through a phase of getting put down early? The knockdowns always seemed to waken him up. With Leushing he was never in any real danger I don't think.

At the time, Danny Williams stopping Mike Tyson?

Tyson could take a shot and Williams had recently been beaten by Sprott and Sam so he was hardly considered World Class.

The original post asked for knockOUTS, so why is everybody bringing up examples of knockdowns and wobblings?

If a domestic fighter knocked out a world class fight, therefore justifying or legitimising his world class power.

Why would he then still be a domestic class fighter?

Thats why its hard to conjure one, because success on this criteria precedes graduation, temporary or otherwise, to a level above domestic class.

I think Cooper, given that he never ascended beyond European, and flattened Ali - is as close as you're likely to get to this elusive name.

oliverfennell wrote:The original post asked for knockOUTS, so why is everybody bringing up examples of knockdowns and wobblings?

Because there aren't any! It's as close as we get! lol

Phil Matthews flattening Tom "The Bomb" Bethea.

Richard Evatt had Junior Jones in all sorts of trouble, including a knockdown (or two?). Then got starched.

Glad nobody mentioned Steve Roberts-Keith Mullings. A hometown stoppage if ever there was.