There are many ways to win a bout in boxing but the knockout has always been the most visceral. It’s been the one that captures the world’s attention and the one that can catapult a boxer to a wider audience. There’s something definitive about a knockout win tha a decision, however comprehensive, often struggles to emulate. And a knockout speaks to the base part of us that enjoys boxing, the primal instinct that fires our blood when we watch two boxers compete. Knockouts have provided some of boxings iconic images and calls, from Ali stopping Foreman to Foreman stopping Moorer to Mercer stopping Morrison to Martinez dropping Williams to Marquez stopping Pacquiao to… well… Tyson. A knockout can come to define a boxer’s career… for good or ill… and today we look at the best knockouts of 2013.
I’ve already looked at those who gained the most this year and those who lost the most. But how about those who basically stood still? As a general rule in boxing you’re either rising to the surface or sinking towards the bottom but for some boxers it appears they spent 2013 treading water. Despite the somewhat pejorative title, this isn’t a list of those who had a bad year… some of these names have had a pretty good year all-told. It’s a list of people we expected more from and for whatever reason… be it in their control or not… it simply hasn’t happened that way.
Boxing is a fickle game and as quickly as it can rise a pugilist up it can also bring them down. This unwanted award if for the boxers who wish 2013 had never happened. They started the year well respected in their field and ended it broken and lost.
One of the great joys of boxing is watching new stars appear seemingly from nowhere, thrust into the limelight not by salivating promoters or over-eager media but instead simply through the strength of their performances and the acclamation of their fans. This award is to celebrate those who rose from (relative) obscurity in 2012 to become notable names in boxing as 2013 comes to a close.
He was The Problem. He was About Billions. He was the “Can Man” (because *gesticulating to imaginary opponents* he can get it and he can get it… apparently). He was first Mr HBO and then Mr Showtime. He was the next big thing, the new star to carry boxing forward, the apple of Golden Boy’s eye. He was the heir to Mayweather, the next love-to-hate superstar for whom the only thing that matched his arrogance and conceit was his talent and skill.
Early in the bout with Marcos Maidana, Broner had slipped behind Maidana and mockingly humped him. Late in the bout a dejected Broner could do nothing as Maidana slipped around him and did the same thing to howls of approval from the crowd.
And in between Broner had been dropped twice, hurt repeatedly, forced into amateur dramatics in a desperate attempt to get a DQ win, beaten up, broken down and pretty much outclassed.
In what on paper was meant to be a relatively soft comeback following being outclassed by then IBF title holder Devon Alexander, Essex brawler Lee Purdy instead found himself beaten up and then stopped by the unheralded Leonard Bundu in a bout that was as much a fight as a boxing match.
Bundu may have been the owner of a pretty 29-0 record and the holder of the European belt, but the 41 year old had barely boxed outside Italy previously and had faced a pretty limited selection of opposition. A younger, fresher Purdy boxing at home was expected to be able to overpower him. Instead, Bundu was simply the better man throughout. The bout was an entertaining, engaging war where both men could be proud of their efforts with Purdy pressing forwards relentlessly to confront Bundu who was trying to keep the battle at range. The issue was that even when he did manage to get to the inside, Bundu still had the edge, landing impressive combinations and cutting Purdy open. As the bout wore on Purdy became wilder and wilder while Bundu’s seemed to become more and more powerful and in the 12th he knocked Purdy down with a right and then swarmed him with follow up punches to earn a deserved stoppage.
Marcos Rene Maidana, the hard punching Argentinian, outworked, bullied and most shockingly at times outclassed the incredibly highly regarded Adrien Broner to win a one-sided decision having dropped Broner twice and had a point deducted himself.
The simple way to look at the bout was that Maidana outworked Broner, in some rounds throwing going on ten times the punches that the WBA champion threw in return. But that misses the fact that Maidana wasn’t just throwing, he was also landing. Broner’s defence has always been more porous then one would expect considering his reputation but here it was wide open at times. Throughout the bout Broner couldn’t read Maidana’s jab, being speared by it multiple times and, more worryingly, unable to tell when it would turn from a jab to a hook to either the head or body and even when Maidana reverted to type and threw wild, looping shoots Broner still found himself caught. To be fair many of the punches were blocked, deflected or ridden but a significant number landed and the roar from the crowd whenever one did made clear who the partisan fans favoured… especially when Broner tumbled to the floor twice.
6 November 2003: James Kirkland smashes an overmatched Russell Jordan in a round, improving to 11-0. The 19 year old former National Golden Gloves finalist is considered a great talent and one to keep an eye on.
Later in 2003: James Kirkland is arrested for his participation in an armed robbery and is sentenced to jail time. His boxing career is put on hold for two and a half years.
7 March 2009: James Kirkland blasts his way through gatekeeper Joel Julio, forcing him to quit in six rounds to set up a seemingly inevitable title shot. Since returning to boxing in 2006, Kirkland is 14-0 with 13 stoppages. Promoted by Golden Boy he has been heavily featured on TV and is one of the names to watch in boxing.
23 September 2009: James Kirkland is sentenced to two years in prison following an April arrest for possession of a firearm when a convicted felon.
5 March 2011: James Kirkland returns to boxing, flattening Ahsandi Gibbs in a single round. With a new trainer and team around him Golden Boy intend to keep James Kirkland busy on his way to a title shot.
5 November 2011: Having won a couple of keep busy bouts in the interim, James Kirkland is selected as an opponent for Alfredo Angulo and his return to boxing. Travelling to Mexico few give Kirkland a chance but with his old trainer back in his corner he comes back from a first round knockdown to score one of his own (part of a clear round of the year candidate) and proceeds to give Angulo a beating before stopping him in six rounds. Kirkland follows this win by beating spoiler Carlos Molina in an awkward bout to keep his hopes of a title shot alive.
In June 2009, Golden Boy were throwing their full promotional weight behind a young fighter. Victor Ortiz was 24-1-1 with the loss being a slightly controversial DQ and the draw being a technical decision with less than a round boxed. He had fast, heavy hands having stopped 19 of his opponents and he’d picked up some notable wins… blasting out former world champion Carlos Maussa in a round and the then still fairly well regarded Mike Arnaoutis. More then that he was handsome and personable with more than a hint of Oscar De La Hoya himself about him. Golden Boy expected big things from the young man as he prepared to box for his first world title against a little known Argentinian who had lost his last bout.
Adrien Broner is not in exactly the same position Victor Ortiz was. While Ortiz was a contender with the hope of going further, Broner is already a three weight world champion with notable wins over Daniel Ponce De Leon, Jason Litzau, Vicente Escobedo, Antonio DeMarco and Paulie Malignaggi. But Broner is a young man who Golden Boy promotions (and in extension, Showtime) have put a lot of effort into hyping and are looking to as someone who can carry the company forward in years to come. And now, much like Ortiz, Broner finds himself standing opposite an menacing Argentinian power puncher who wants to make a mockery of such ambitions.
He may not have been the most well-known name in boxing, certainly outside his native Indonesia or the surrounding countries, and it may only have been dedicated boxing fans in the UK or US who watched his bouts… and even then, rarely live… but the fact is that for going on a decade if you looked at who the top guys at 126lbs were, you’d see Chris John holding some version of the WBA title. He first became champion in the era of Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera and Manny Pacquiao scrapping out their rivalry, he defended it through the never-quite-happened rivalry of Yuriorkis Gamboa, Juan Manuel Lopez and Celestino Caballero and he held it right up to last Friday when it was sensationally ripped away from him by Simpiwe Vetyeka.
For most western fans, Chris John’s only real moment of notoriety comes for the minor role he played in the Pacuqio/Marquez feud. In the wake of their draw in 2004 Marquez turned down a rematch from Pacquiao over the purse he was offered ($750,000 when he wanted $1,500,000) and a match with Morales (offered $1,500,000, wanted $3,500,000) and instead, following being stripped of his sanctioning body titles following some boxing politics, he took a small purse (just over $30,000) to travel to Indonesia to face John, the idea being that by beating this little known and lightly regarded title holder, even for little money, he’d win a title belt and thus get more money for bouts with Pacquiao or Marquez. In some ways it was sound logic. After all, Chris John may have been a title holder, but he had only really faced one recognisable name (Derrick Gainer) and otherwise had been facing pretty limited competition and had no real amateur background, having instead having done the Chinese martia art Wushu. Marquez, fresh from his come from behind draw with Pacquiao and regarded as one of the best boxers at the lower weights, would surely be able to handily beat him?
But that’s not what happened.
It’s worth watching the bout because boxing lore (helped by Marquez and his team) put it down as a robbery, with Chris John aided by biased judges and a biased referee. I just don’t see it. Instead I see John force Marquez to box on the front foot (something the Mexican great has never been particularly comfortable doing), picking off many of Marquez’s shots, landing a clean jab and some good body work while Marquez became so frustrated that by the later rounds he landed multiple deliberate low blows. I had it close and John’s win does have a lot to do with the point deductions but it was not a robbery… merely a close bout that went one way, not the other. I also note that the only member of the western press in attendance, Scott Mallon of Ring Magazine and The Sweet Science, scored the bout 116-110 in favor of John.
Slip the Jab 