Although it is already October, it is still pretty early to give out awards for “Best Knock Out of the Year.”
We still have fights with Mikey Garcia, Gennady Golovkin, and Manny Pacquaio, all of whom have knockout power.
Despite this, we can still go ahead and look at some of the best knockouts of what was, and continues to be, a very good year for boxing.
5. Mikey Garcia vs. Juan Manuel Lopez
Although he had to vacate his title because he could no longer make weight, Mikey Garcia looked excellent against Juan Manuel Lopez.
I picked this knockout simply because Garcia dominated the fight with powerful straight punches. Lopez, a fighter with an impressive knockout ratio of over 80 percent, had no answers for Garcia’s right hand.
Put simply, this was just a beat down.
4. Marcos Maidana vs. Josesito Lopez
Earlier in the year, I got to enjoy a nice summer night of action in Carson, CA when Marcos Maidana took on Josesito Lopez.
After seeing Alfredo Angulo grow a near baseball-sized lump on the side of his head–one that could be seen from very far away, I might add–I needed my spirits to be lifted up by two unrelenting warriors.
Marcos Maidana, a man whose scary power earned him wins over Jesus Soto-Karass, Victor Ortiz, and almost Amir Khan, was nearly hurt before stopping Josesito Lopez.
Both fighters engaged in flurries in the pocket with Maidana eventually getting the best of it.
3.Adonis Stevenson vs. Chad Dawson
Chad Dawson, who was touted the best Light Heavyweight at the time, suffered a disappointing knock out in the very first round.
The first round is when a fighter is most alert, tentative, and powerful. A first round knockout, at a championship-level caliber, is rare because of all these factors.
Sometimes it is even tragic, because the person being knocked out may have simply made a split-second error. In this case, though, the better fighter won.
Adonis Stevenson made his mark as the legitimate Light Heavyweight champion and continued to do so in his win over Tavoris Cloud. It was a “sensational left cross,” as Lampley put it, that landed with full power.
2. Lucas Matthysse vs. Mike Dallas Jr.
It is important to give some background information on this fight because I feel that Mike Dallas Jr. would have done a lot better if the circumstances were different.
I was able to see Mike Dallas Jr. spar with Amir Khan a mere two weeks before the fight. A close source revealed to me that Dallas was seriously burned out. He had gone through numerous training camps and had fights cancelled on him until his bout with Matthysse was confirmed.
Dallas also had to deal with the death of his father, which would make it hard for anyone to do his or her job. Despite this, I still think Dallas would have lost.
The sparring session revealed mistakes from both Khan and Dallas–lunging forward in combinations–that have made their way into both fighter’s fights. I remember Virgil Hunter was talking to them about this, urging both to keep their legs under their feet, but it is a tough habit to get rid of.
It is a habit that made Dallas a target for the counter right hand. It was a vicious knockout. Dallas was asleep before he hit the canvas.
1. Abner Mares vs. Jhonny Gonzalez
Jhonny Gonzalez’s knockout of Abner Mares is at the top of my list because the story in which this knockout was involved ended with a bit of poetic justice.
As often is the case, boxing promoters believe they can control the world around them, picking and choosing opponents beforehand as if their fighters are perfect and impermeable to defeat.
Before this fight, Golden Boy Promotions was already looking past Gonzalez towards a possible super fight with Leo Santa Cruz.
Naturally, upon hearing this, Jhonny Gonzalez was furious.
In a Yahoo Sports article he is quoted as saying that “They were treating me like a steppingstone for Mares and were making plans for a Santa Cruz fight before [he even fought] me.”
Golden Boy had already deemed Gonzalez as defeated. They swiftly looked past the record of a man who, at that point, had forty six knockouts.
It is a lesson Golden Boy hadn’t learned from the fight between Victor Ortiz and Josesito Lopez, and it is one that they still likely haven’t learned from.
Despite all of this, the man who was not given chance ended up winning.
Gonzalez leaned as if he were aiming for a left hook to the body. Mares took the bait and dropped his hand. Gonzalez landed a left hook with full power that sent both Mares and his eyes tumbling backwards.
Gonzales finished the fight with a flurry, but it was clear that Mares didn’t recover from the first left hand.
It was a knockout that many did not expect.
Honorable Mention
Others who could have easily made the list are Gennady Golovkin, Deontay Wilder, and Chris Arreola.
However, Golovkin’s knockouts were with a man, Ishida, who is a natural Junior Middleweight and another, Macklin, whose style was perfectly tailored to help Golovkin shine. These were not competitive fights on paper and were even less competitive in the ring.
Also, Deontay Wilder’s knockouts mostly came over Heavyweights who are nobodies, and bouts with Arreola, Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin or David Haye will need to be made in order to prove his status as a Heavyweight.
Arreola’s knockout of Seth Mitchell was also impressive, reminding us that football players need to be careful if they want to step in the ring at a relatively older age.
