31 December 2019, by: Quintin van Jaarsveld

Top 10 Boxing Knockouts of 2019

The sweet science delivered some savage knockouts to close out the decade, writes Quintin van Jaarsveld.

There’s nothing more universally captivating in all of sports than a knockout. A lightning rod of a highlight, the ultimate show of one athlete’s superiority over another…boxing at its brutal best.

The hits kept on coming in 2019 with some of the biggest names in the hurt business bringing the pain in breath-taking fashion.

Here are our picks for the top 10 boxing knockouts in 2019:

As tempting as it may be, showboating in the ring is never a good idea. Sabri Sediri found that out the hard way in Leicester in March when he squared off with Sam Maxwell for the vacant WBO European super-lightweight strap. Up on the scorecards and having dropped Maxwell twice, the Frenchman clowned around, allowing the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist to catch him with a right with just 10 seconds left on the clock.

Woooooow! ??

Sam Maxwell was losing and being taunted by his opponent all fight and then did this with 10 second to go!

Incredible knockout ?? pic.twitter.com/qM069RZnQK

— Boxing on BT Sport ?? (@BTSportBoxing) March 23, 2019

David Allen delivered the best body shot stoppage of the year and picked up the biggest win of his career against Lucas Browne in London in April. “The White Rhino” countered a wild right and gored Brown with a left body snatcher to shut down the former WBA world heavyweight champion in the third round.

The true measure of a man is how he responds to adversity. After losing his super-welterweight title to Tony Harrison, Jermell Charlo bounced back brilliantly against Jorge Cota in Las Vegas in June, dropping him and then finishing him off with a tantalising two-piece in the third. Charlo went on to avenge his only career loss and reclaim his title by knocking out Harrison in the rematch.

To use a cliché, you only get one chance to make a first impression. Devin Haney seemingly knew this as he made an unforgettable debut on DAZN against Antonio Moran in Maryland in May. “The Dream” proved to be Moran’s worst nightmare, lighting him up for six rounds before uncorking an overhand right for the ages in the seventh, and with that, a star was born.

Zimbabwean destroyer Dereck Chisora scored one of the most haunting knockouts of the year when he obliterated Artur Szpilka in London in July. Chisora, who challenged Vitali Klitschko for the WBC heavyweight title back in 2012, put himself back in the mix as he melted Szpilka with a frightening right in the second.

As if he hadn’t proved what a stud he was enough already, middleweight maestro Canelo Alvarez moved up two weight classes, 15 pounds north of his natural weight, and brutally knocked out Sergey Kovalev in the fight capital of the world in November to become a four-weight world champion. Employing a cautious, calculating game plan against the bigger “Krusher”, Alvarez waited for his opening and found it in the 11th, rocking Kovalev with a left before jacking his jaw with a right to add the WBO light heavyweight title to his collection.

Gennady Golovkin rebounded from the controversial loss to Canelo, the first of his career that saw him relinquish his WBA, WBC and IBF middleweight titles, in violent fashion in his catchweight contest against Steve Rolls at Madison Square Garden in June. In a menacing mood, “GGG” face-planted Rolls with a lethal left hook in the fourth as he proved he’s still at the top of his game.

Deontay Wilder underlined his status as the most destructive force in heavyweight history (boasting a beastly and unrivalled 95.3% knockout ratio) this year as he added two more highlight-reel finishes to his brutal body of work. Putting a stamp on 2019 in Las Vegas in November, Wilder showed newfound patience as he bided his time until the seventh when he shattered the legendary chin of Luis Ortiz in their rematch. It was Wilder’s 10th consecutive defence of his WBC crown, tying him with Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Tommy Burns and Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko as the only heavyweight champions to achieve this remarkable feat.

In one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, Andy Ruiz Jr. handed the all-conquering Anthony Joshua his first-ever loss in unbelievable fashion. Replacing Jarrell Miller, who had failed a drug test, the short, pudgy Ruiz was a 30/1 underdog against the statuesque unified heavyweight champion at Madison Square Garden in June. Ruiz recovered from an early knockdown to drop “AJ” twice in the third before finishing him off in the seventh to earn the WBA, WBO and IBF titles, becoming the first fighter of Mexican descent to capture a major heavyweight world championship.

Who else? Coming off a thrilling draw with lineal champion Tyson Fury in an all-time classic, Wilder made a statement in his title defence against Dominic Breazeale in New York in May. Wasting little time, “The Bronze Bomber” sent the challenger crashing to the canvas with arguably the most harrowing hammer blow of his unbeaten career to claim his 20th first-round finish.

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Quintin van Jaarsveld

Quintin Van Jaarsveld is a former MDDA-Sanlam SA Local Sports Journalist of the Year and a former three-time Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal Sports Journalist of the Year. Formerly the sports editor and Outstanding Journalist of the Year award winner at The Fever Media Group, deputy editor at eHowzit, editor at SARugby.com and senior staff writer at Rugby365.com, he boasts over 15 years’ experience and is currently a freelance sports writer.