Some of The Luckiest Punches in The History of Professional Boxing
By Robert Brizel, Head RCM Boxing Correspondent
Beyond talent, skill, heart, guts, passion and glory in the sport of boxing, certain punches which have won famous bouts must be categorized as pure luck. Far from specific power or an intentional game plan, the winning fighters simply lucked out. For those fighters who did NOT win, their lucky punches, it must be said, stood for something in the course of boxing history.
Before listing some of my favorites (and there are so many) allow me to state in evaluating some of the significant heavyweight title bouts of the past: Smokin’ Joe Frazier’s fifteenth round knockdown of Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali’s eighth round knockout of George Foreman in Zaire; Earnie Shavers knockdown of Larry Holmes in their second meeting; counterpunching Max Schemling’s late round knockout over Joe Louis; Hasim Rahman’s knockout victory over Lennox Lewis in their first bout; and Corrie Sanders multiple knockdown power shot victory over Wladimir Klitschko. These victories were NOT lucky wins, but a combination of skill, hard work, and a game plan executed to near perfection. In addition, Shavers had mucho power in his prime. Lewis lost because he had not trained properly for the bout as Rahman had. When Buster Douglas came off the canvas and knocked Mike Tyson out, Tyson was trying to reach down for his mouthpiece when he got counted out, and his corner had not brought a no-swell, mistakes I have yet to see another 37-0 world heavyweight champion make.
Jack Johnson KO 12 Stanley Ketchel (October 16, 1909)
Undisputed World Heavyweight Title
Middleweight champion Stanley Ketchel and Heavyweight champion Jack Johnson had agreed to let the bout go 20 rounds for the sake of motion picture exhibitors. Ketchel landed a right on Johnson’s lowered head which dropped Johnson, and the referee attempted to quick count Johnson out. Johnson beat the count and landed a shot to Ketchel’s jaw which knocked out Ketchel with such force, Johnson had to brush two of Ketchel’s teeth out of his glove. A rematch was in the works. Ketchel had fought a six round no decision against Sam Langford. Ketchel was murdered on October 15, 1910, by ranch hand Walter Dipley, for either reasons of robbery, or jealousy of Stanley Ketchel’s involvement with Dipley’s girlfriend.
Julian Jackson KO 4 Herol Graham (November 24, 1990)
World Boxing Association World Middleweight Title
Julian ‘The Hawk’ Jackson was behind on the cards, and his eyes were swelling shut, both of which were repaired detached retinas. Graham went in for the kill with Jackson getting hit by his heavy shots in a corner. Jackson somehow landed a power counter right hook over a Graham lazy left, and put Graham down and out for the ten counter. Quoting the British commentator of Graham “Oh No! That’s what we were afraid of! He isn’t going to get from that.”
Mike Weaver KO 15 John Tate (March 31, 1980)
World Boxing Association World Heavyweight Title
Tate blew a multimillion dollar match with Muhammad Ali. Tate had the bout won on the cards, when Weaver knocked out Tate unconscious with a left hook face first spread eagle at 2:16 of round 15.
Juan Manuel Marquez KO 6 Manny Pacquiao IV (December 8, 2012)
World Boxing Council Fighter of the Decade World Title Bout
A battered and bloodied Juan Manuel Marquez landed a right hand to the head of Pacquiao, and knocked out Pacquiao face first, with Pacquiao out of foot position.
Joe Louis TKO 4 Two Ton Tony Galento (June 28, 1939)
Updisputed World Heavyweight Title
Bartender and boxer Two Ton Tony Galento was a colorful fighter who adage was “I’ll moider da bum!” Galentino was a dirty fighter and a strange fighter, having boxed a bear, a kangaroo, boxed actor Jackie Gleason after one of Gleason’s television shows, and wrestled an octopus! Short and fat, Galento fought from a low crouch, making himself difficult to hit. Galentino was a faster of elbowing, low blows, kicking and other illegal tactics he used to set up his patented left hook. Aftercoming off the canvas in the second, Galento decked Joe Louis for a two count in round three, and sent him to his corner on wobbly legs as the round ended. Louis gave Galento a frightful beating in round four.
Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) TKO 5 Henry Cooper I (June 18, 1963)
Cooper’s left hook decked Cassius Clay near the end of round four. Clay was saved by the bell. Clay’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, illegally administered his fighter smelling salts.
Muhammad Ali TKO 15 Chuck Wepner (March 24, 1975)
Undisputed World Heavyweight Title
New Jersey Heavyweight champion Chuck Wepner, ‘The Bayonne Bleeder’, decked Ali, who was showboating and clownin around, with a vicious right hook to the liver right by the rib cage, a power shot right on the button, which put Muhammad Ali on his seat.
Dale Crowe KO 10 Greg Page (March 9, 2001)
Vacant USA Kentucky Heavyweight Title
Crowe hit Page with a left to the head late in round 10, and then while holding his head, threw him backwards to the canvas, where Page hit his head and went into a coma for a week, with no ambulance present to take him to a hospital at the fight. Rowe should have been disqualified. Page underwent brain surgery which caused left the left side of his body paralyzed. In 2009, a paralyzed Greg Page died when his head got lodged between his hospital bed at home and the bed rail, and he tragically asphyxiated.
Aaron Pryor KO 4 Antonio Cervantes (August 2, 1980)
World Boxing Association World Light Welterweight Title
Columbia’s Cervantes, fighting fearlessly in Pryor‘s hometown Cincinnati, Ohio, decked Pryor in the first. In the fourth round, Pryor dropped Kid Pambele, who did not get up.
Carlos Monzon WIn 15 Rodrigo Valdes II (July 30, 1977)
Undisputed World Middleweight Title
In Monzon’s last bout, Rodrigo Valdes decked him in the second round, and won the first three rounds. Monzon came back to win, but wisely retired after the bout.
Joey Archer Win 10 Sugar Ray Robinson (November 10, 1965)
Sugar Ray Robinson’s Last Professional Bout Before Retirement
The 44-1 Archer decked the faded and aging Sugar Ray Robinson for a nine count in round four. Archer, who beat Robinson and gave his all, was never to be the champion. He later lost all three of his world middleweight title opportunity bouts by 15 round decision, once to Don Fullmer, and then twice to Emile Griffith. After the three losses, Archer wisely retired in 1967 with a record of 45-4..
Tony Ayala Jr. KO 3 Mario Maldonado (March 28, 1981)
Maldonado, who was world ranked, emptied his guns and threw everything in the tank against Ayala, taking a chance he could take Ayala out early. Ayala got knocked in the first but beat the count. Ayala roughed up a punched out Maldonado, knocking him out in the third round.
Larry Holmes TKO 11 Renaldo Snipes (November 6, 1981)
World Boxing Council World Heavyweight Title
Snipes slammed a surprise right hook to the head with Holmes along the ropes, and dropped him. Holmes had been clowning around and showboating when the bomb landed. Holmes arose on ‘queer street’, staggering and bouncing off the ropes, which referee Rudy Ortega, escorting Snipes to the neutral corner did not see. If referee Ortega had seen how Holmes had staggered off the ropes getting up, the bout might have been stopped. Snipes the moved in for the kill with speed, landing another overhand right on Holmes. However, Holmes survived, and later stopped Snipes in the eleventh round.
Edwin Valero TKO 10 Vicente Mosquera (August 5, 2006)
World Boxing Association World Super Featherweight Title
The late southpaw Edwin Valero of Venezuela had champion Vicente Mosquera of Panama on the canvas twice in the first round, but he could not finish the brave world champion. Mosquera had Valero down in the third round. Valero stopped Mosquera later in the bout.
Juan Kid Meza KO 1 40-0 Jaime Garza (November 3, 1984)
World Boxing Council Super Bantamweight Title
Ring Magazine Round of the Year 1984
A CBS television classic, with commentary by Gil Clancy, Tim Ryan, and sugar Ray Leonard. Garza knocked down Meza early, who sat on the canvas taking his time to get up. Juan Kid Meza then arose, and came back to knock out 40-0 Jaime Garza in the first round to win the WBC Super Bantamweight title. Commentator Sugar Ray Leonard correctly observed Garza was incorrectly swinging with his punches wide and leaving himself open, and then it happened just like that. Sloppy boxing by an overconfident Garza was immediately noticeable, and Garza, whose eyes rolled when he hit the canvas, tried but failed to get up, and a 40-0 world champion got amazingly taken out.
Darnell Wilson KO 6 36-0 David Rodriguez (December 14, 2013)
Atlantic City, New Jersey Casino Upset of the Year in 2013 by a Gatekeeper Heavyweight
The Ding-A-Ling Man, AKA heavyweight gatekeeper Darnell Wilson, has a record of 25-17. Wilson, considered the ‘test’ fighter for rising heavyweight wannabes, upset 49-2 veteran contender Juan Carlos Gomez by 10 round decision in Hamburg, Germany in September 2011, and this should have been a clear warning sign to the handlers of the untested Rodriguez. Wilson, age 39, a loser of five fights in a row coming into this bout, and having lost the bout on points going into the sixth round, landed a lucky left hook, and an exposed Rodriguez got counted out by referee Lindsay Page at 2:59 of the sixth and final round. Rodriguez was attempting a comeback after getting slashed from earlobe to chin in a nightclub altercation in December 2011. A Wilson-Rodriguez 2014 rematch is probable.
There are many more entries of luck punch upsets and victories which could qualify for this article. Probably if the late Hank Kaplan, the late Bert sugar, the Emanuel Steward and I could get together with Teddy Atlas, Gil Clancy, Nat Fleischer and Don Dunphy, there would be many more fights which my boxing expert associates could cite.
Special Notes on Archie Moore’s Knockdown of Rocky Marciano (September 21, 1955)
Undisputed World Heavyweight Title Bout
One memory I would like to add is Archie Moore’s second round knockdown of Rocky Marciano in the rock’s final fight in 1955. The part where ‘the millionaire referee’ Harry Kessler reaches down to help Rocky up was conspicuously edited out of the fight film before release. Kessler, whose last ring appearance was refereeing Muhammad Ali’s WBA World Heavyweight title 15 round decision win over Ernie Terrell at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, knew better than to do what he did. Moore felt he had Marciano out and was ready to finish him. Moore hated Kessler for 30 years till Kessler died in 1986, but later said he regretted what the hate did to him and wished he could have apologizes to Kessler.
Moore wanted a rematch with Rocky, but Rocky’s retirement was for keeps. Moore’s knockdown of Rocky was by skill and power, and good inside penetration of Rocky’s defenses. Archie’s issue had not to do with Kessler, and had not to do with weight gain and loss as Moore also claimed. Rather, ‘The Old Mongoose’ was just not as effective as a heavyweight. Moore was unable to beat Floyd Patterson or Cassius Clay or Marciano, who all took him out at the world class level. Moore did beat ‘B’ heavyweights Alejandro Lavorante, Nino Valdes, Bob Baker and Pete Rademacher. And Joey Maxim, the light heavyweight Moore beat for that title, was able to beat Floyd Patterson at heavyweight rather convincingly.
COMMENTS
English