Personal favorite knockdowns/knockouts?

[Punster]

I loved it when Wepner knocked down Ali. I admit that Ali is a great boxer. However, I hated him as a person.

It may not have been a real knockdown per se but Ali was being more arrogant than usual and didn't give Wepner any respect at all. Then Wepner scored a knockdown. I loved that.

[Da Iceman]

3. Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling II
In their first fight, Louis was pummeled for 12 rounds until he was knocked out, suffering his only loss in his career at the time. He had recently won the title by an 8th round KO of James J. Braddock, and was challenged by German Schmeling. The fight would soon be one of the most symbolic and influential sporting events of all-time. The first round opened with Louis delivering a beating to Schmeling along the ropes, forcing the ref to to break them up. Louis floored Schmeling twice, but it's the last knockdown that really stands. As soon as Schemling gets up, Louis shoots a signature left jab. Schmeling tries to throw a weak right, but Louis simply knocks it out of the way and throws a devastating right to the side of Schemling that has him wincing over in pain. A left to the chest knocks Schmeling up, and Louis takes a quick pause as if to let the pain sink in, and comes down on the top of Schmeling's head with a smashing right cross that snaps Schemling's head around in a sick, violent motion. Schmeling was down and his corner threw in the towel. The perfection and brutality of the knockdown will always be an image of America's conquest of Germany.

Muhammad Ali vs. Cleveland Williams
Ali had nearly dominated everything in sight, and Cleveland Williams, a heavy-hitter that gave Liston troubles in his prime, was up next. However, Ali made Williams look like no one that could have given a prime Liston trouble. For 3 rounds, Ali landed around 300 punches, whereas Williams landed 3. Late in the 2nd round, Williams was floored twice. After getting up, Ali immediatly rushes and nails him with a straight right-straight left, and launches a long left hook. An explosive right hand that had Ali's whole body behind it snapped Williams's head back and floored him. The 4 punches are blended together that makes Ali's arms look like machine guns. Williams was saved by the floor, but was counted out early in the 3rd round. Never have I seen a multi-punch landed and executed so perfectly on one's head. That was argubaly Ali's best performance in the ring, and easily the best knockdown he made.

i love when joe beat on his back

[krtbuckeye]

Allthough it didn't last past the second round, my all time favorite fighht is...... Jack Dempsey v. Luis Angel Firpo 9-14-1923. Dempsey won this fight by KO in the 2'nd but this was the greatest slugfest in history hands down and i'll defend that to the death...lol. Here's a little rundown of the fight....

Firpo came out with firepower, dropping Dempsey with a right hand at the beginning of round 1. Recuperated, Dempsey proceeded to drop Firpo seven times.

Toward the end of the round, Firpo trapped the champion on the ropes and proceeded to strike him with overhand right hands -- the last depositing Dempsey out of the ring, and into the photographers row. Dempsey was hit by a writing machine during the fall, and suffered a deep gash on the back of the head. He was helped back into the ring by the writers at ringside at the count of nine.

After the out of ring knockdown, Dempsey stormed Firpo in round two, dropping his foe three times and the bout was stopped at .57, with the winner and still champion -- Jack Dempsey.

[Da Iceman]

you just sayin that cuz of what bert sugar said

[Skydog]

Ok, well I came up with a tie for the greatest knockdown of all time.

Lennox Lewis vs. Hasim Rahman II
Lennox Lewis had been dominating the heavyweight league for a few years now, and had just been enbarassingly KO'ed by second-rate Hasim Rahman. In the 4th round of their second bout, the scorecards were nearly even, though Lennox had the slight edge. The 4th round came out with Lennox landing a few good jabs and right hands. Towards the middle of the round, Lennox did a Muhammad Ali like move on his feet, floating to his left. At the same time, he threw a dazzling left hook that snapped Rahman's head back. He immediatly followed up with a full swung right hook that lands with a thud on Rahman's head. The two punches happened at so fast, they seem like the same punch. Lennox redeemed his loss to Rahman perfectly with this knockout.

Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali I
The punch that nearly everyone has seen or heard of. Every boxing fan knows the stipulation, but I'll explain it anyway. Ali had returned to boxing, seeking his title that he (and everyone else) claimed was his. The title was held by a machine called Joe Frazier, who had won all 26 of his fights, 23 of which didn't go the distance. Ali had brutalized Joe outside of the ring; calling him an Uncle Tom, telling him he was too ugly to be champion, isolating him from the black community. Joe was never a trash-talker, and even if he was, no one could stand up to Ali in that area of matter. However, when the fight started, the two tore into eachother like caged animals. By the 11th round, it was nearly equal, but Joe had sent Ali stumbling and reeling twice in the round. By the 15th round, Joe was winning by a small edge. Early in the round, Ali had been laying on the ropes and was absorbing some of Frazier's shots. He danced off to the left, closely followed by Frazier. While in the middle of throwing a right uppercut, Frazier sensed it and launched one of his signature left hooks. Somehow, someway, Frazier had beat Ali to the punch and totally suprised him by nailing him square on the chin with a deadly left hook. Ali's head snapped to the left, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell to the canvas. Courageously, he got up and survived the rest of the round. However, he lost his first professional fight, and his fans had finally got proof that he, like every great boxer before him such as Louis and Dempsey, was beatable. Not only was the knockdown the greatest one-punch knockdown in history, it was what secured Frazier's victory and it symbolized that Ali was a mortal. It is also the most recocnizable image in the Ali-Frazier rivalvry.

[chopper77]

My favorite is when Hopkins knocked down ODH. I like Oscar ok, but man that shot was a beauty!! Any body shot knock down is tops in my book.

[Skydog]

Allthough it didn't last past the second round, my all time favorite fighht is...... Jack Dempsey v. Luis Angel Firpo 9-14-1923. Dempsey won this fight by KO in the 2'nd but this was the greatest slugfest in history hands down and i'll defend that to the death...lol. Here's a little rundown of the fight....

Firpo came out with firepower, dropping Dempsey with a right hand at the beginning of round 1. Recuperated, Dempsey proceeded to drop Firpo seven times.

Toward the end of the round, Firpo trapped the champion on the ropes and proceeded to strike him with overhand right hands -- the last depositing Dempsey out of the ring, and into the photographers row. Dempsey was hit by a writing machine during the fall, and suffered a deep gash on the back of the head. He was helped back into the ring by the writers at ringside at the count of nine.

After the out of ring knockdown, Dempsey stormed Firpo in round two, dropping his foe three times and the bout was stopped at .57, with the winner and still champion -- Jack Dempsey.

You wanna see the most perfect description of that fight?

From the man Bert Sugar himself:

Then came the bell, almost lost in the continuous cataract of sound made by 85,000 voices. Firpo advanced to the center of the ring in an unusual stance. For him. For it was the classic boxer's stance, taught to him by his American trainer, Jimmy DeForest, who had tried to instill some semblance of defense in the South American neanderthal who knew absolutely nothing about the science of self-defense--his only defense being his right fist.

Dempsey crouched low, all the better to minimize Firpo's potential target. But such subtleties apparently eluded Fripo, his very first punch, a thunderous and ponderous right, caught Dempsey on the jaw, sending the champion to the canvass only 10 seconds into the fight.

Dempsey jumped off the canvas, not even taking a count, more embarrassed by being knocked off-balance than hurt and went on the attack. As the two flailing behemoths' arms entangled, they fell into a clinch. The referee shouted "break" and as the trusting Firpo dropped his hands and glanced inquiringly at the ref Dempsey threw a left hook over Firpo's half held-up right. It landed flush on the jaw, and now Firpo was down. He, too, was up without a count. The first two punches had produced two knockdowns., all within 20 seconds. And were to set a pattern. For as soon as Firpo had bounced up, he threw himself at the champion, connecting with a right to the only spot open to him, Dempsey's body. Dempsey continued to sacrifice his body, holding his hands high against his chin and against the chance Firpo would land another of his lethal rights.

But Firpo paid no heed to Dempsey's defense just as he paid no attention to his handlers' advice and threw another looping right, which seem to originate from somewhere near the right field foul pole. It caught the champion on the point of the jaw. However, this time, instead of finding refuge on the canvas, Dempsey found refuge in returning Firpo's firepower with his own, drilling a left uppercut through Firpo's haphazard defense. The Argentine stood there wavering. Then he crashed to the canvas with a resounding thud.

As the crowd jumped to its collective feet, yelling, screaming, climbing up on the benches, clawing at each other and issuing a wild, tumultuous roar in the greatest sustained mass audience hysteria ever heard, Firpo, too, tried to jump up. But Dempsey, like an avenging angel of death, stood over him, ready to jump on his fallen opponent as soon as his hands left the resin of the canvas. And, as they did, Dempsey caught Firpo with a left and right. But instead of retreating, Firpo came on, throwing three devastating hammering rights into Dempsey's unguarded rib cage. Then, as he sought to deliver yet another booming right to the body, Dempsey stepped inside his wide swing to deliver his own bomb, a left hook to the chin. Firpo fell as if he had been pole-axed, flat on his face, arms surrounding his head.

Miraculously he arose, only to run into Dempsey who had positioned himself directly over the fallen challenger. Dempsey was off-target with a right, grazing Firpo's head. But Firpo was so groggy its force brushed him back to the canvas for the fourth time. This time referee Gallagher tried to push Dempsey away. As Dempsey backed up, Firpo got up again. Dempsey raced in and, after another left and right to Firpo's jaw, left him where he begun the exchange, back on the floor.

Again Firpo made it to his feet only to find Dempsey waiting for him the very second his hands had left the floor. Another right sent Firpo down for the sixth time.

Somehow, somewhere, from resolution or instinct, Firpo got to his feet again, shaking but still trying to hurl just one of his right-hand bombs at the onrushing Dempsey. But before he wound up to throw it a left and a right from Dempsey deposited the Argentine giant back on the floor yet another time. This time he looked like a finished giant, his head buried in the mat, his arms stretched out. Unbelievably, the giant shook, shivered and stood up, reaching a standing position just before the fatal count of "10"

Now, calling on some superhuman force, Firpo flung himself at Dempsey, bulling him away from him, across the ring. Then, with Dempsey on the retreat for the first time, Firpo threw a clubbing right which landed aside Dempsey's head and the champion, impaled on the ropes, proved Newton's Law--that every action has an equal and opposite reaction--by falling through the ropes into the press section, feet flying and arms behind him to cushion his fall. It was the most famous moment in sports, captured for all time by George Bellows' equally famous painting. In the words of sportswriter Bugs Baer, Dempsey had "skipped three ropes at once."

Here Lady Fate took up Jack Dempsey and swept him up in the folds of her skirt. For in a stadium where Rickard had built the press benches higher than usual, Dempsey had fallen on the typewriter of Jack Lawrence of the New York Tribune, who was worried more about protecting the 44 keys on his Underwood than the 192 ½ pounds of Dempsey. And Lawrence, almost instinctively, hydraulically hoisted the champ up onto the ring apron at the count of seven. By nine Dempsey had climbed through the middle and lower ropes and was back into the ring.

The remainder of the round belonged to Firpo as he hurled right hands at Dempsey, who managed to roll slightly under the punches, almost as if by instinct, breaking their force. Had Firpo even had a hint of a left hand the championship would have changed hands. However, such was not the case and he spent the rest of Round One taking aim at the bobbing head in front of him with an unvaried assortment of rights.

The end of the round found Dempsey still on his feet, beginning to throw punches of his own. Even after the bell he threw several more at Firpo, all of which landed and left both men dazed and spent from their first-round efforts.

The echo of the bell for Round Two had barely died down when Dempsey began to pick up where he had left off at the end of the opening round, throwing short inside punches and taking Firpo's rights to the body. Dempsey, hurt by one of Firpo's rib-crackers, fell into a clinch. Upon the break, he stepped back in and began throwing combinations to Firpo's head. Two left hooks landed over Firpo's by-now limp guard. A left to the body, followed by two right uppercuts and another left to the body all landed flush. Firpo tried to hold on, but Dempsey pulled away and caught the exhausted challenger with another left and right to the head. Firpo less fell than wilted to the canvas, down for the eighth time. Once again he pulled himself up by sheer will at the count of five and greeted the onrushing Dempsey with a wild right to the neck. Dempsey moved in close and found Firpo's jaw with a well-placed left and followed with a right, literally lifting the giant from his feet and hurling him headlong to the floor with the crashing sound of a mighty oak falling frim great heights.

As the count from referee Jack Gallagher reached five Firpo shuddered and turned his body, trying mightily to once again defy gravity and reach his feet. But this time he was not to make it. This time it was over.

The battle had lasted exactly three minutes and 57 seconds, 237 seconds of pure mayhem in which 11 knockdowns were scored in the shortest and wildest "great fight" in the history of boxing. And while it could hardly be called "the Sweet Science," it sure was one helluva sweet quarrel.

[Wing master]

Hey Skydog,
You mentioned the Louis Burman fight. I have been looking for a copy of this fight. If you have a copy, I would really like to trade or buy a copy.
Thanks
Wing master

[me2007]

my personal favourite was Michael Sprott knocking out Audley Harrison...

i also like tysons KO of holmes - i dont think this fight would have been any different if Holmes was in his prime...he had no way to neutralise tysons movement and looping shots...

I also enjoy Lewis - Rahman II

Maskaev - Rahman I & II

Lewis - Grant

Lews - Briggs

[The Monk]

Gatti ko'ing Rodriguez. That was a perfect left hook.