ATG Heavies who were KO'd early...

[CarlosG815]

True, true, iv'e checked my facts..........for some reason i thought Max KO'd him early in that first fight.

Joe is a legitimate ATG and would never have been KO'd early.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

If it's in five rounds or fewer...

Jack Dempsey:

(KO1 vs. Jim Flynn, 1917)

Joe Frazier:

(TKO2 vs. George Foreman, 1973, TKO5 vs. George Foreman, 1976)

Larry Holmes:

(TKO4 vs. Mike Tyson, 1988)

Lennox Lewis:

(TKO2 vs. Oliver McCall, 1993, KO5 vs. Hasim Rahman, 2001)

Sonny Liston:

(KO1 vs. Muhammad Ali, 1965)

Mike Tyson:

(KO4 vs. Danny Williams, 2004)

Dempsey & Frazier were taken down close to, but not quite in, their primes. Lewis is the only instance of a top-10 ATG (by my estimation) to have suffered a defeat of this nature whilst in his prime. Though out-of-condition for the fight, that first bout with the deplorable Rahman was during the latter stages of his prime years.