The 10 most unforgettable body-shot knockouts

Maciej Sulecki wasn’t exactly enjoying all the punches to the head that Diego Pacheco was dishing out Saturday night, but he could take them. Across 14 years and 35 fights as a pro, the Polish super middleweight had acquired all the veteran savvy needed to roll with shots, buy time when buzzed, use his legs and get through every sticky situation he had ever been in.

But when Pacheco put the full torque of his 6-foot-4 frame into a whipsaw left hand that landed just under the right elbow 41 seconds into the sixth round, there was nothing Sulecki could do. Veteran wiles didn’t count for much. Steely resolve didn’t do him any good. His body spun around 270 degrees clockwise as it crumpled. Sulecki went into the fetal position. Then he rolled onto his back, and he couldn’t lift any part of himself off the canvas before referee Ray Corona counted 10.

Body-shot knockouts aren’t usually as eye-popping as a crack to the jaw that renders a fighter unconscious, a reality reflected in the fact that only once in the 35 years that “The Ring” magazine has been naming a Knockout of the Year has that honor gone to a pure body-shot KO. But body-shot knockouts are beautiful in their own way. There’s an accompanying agony on the face of the victim that we don’t get with head shots. And there’s a cerebral appeal to a boxer going downstairs to end matters when faced with a stubborn opponent who can take everything being dished out above the neck – as Sulecki, who had never been stopped before, did for a little over five rounds Saturday in Carson, California.

Pacheco KO6 Sulecki was a spectacular body-shot blast-out. But it wasn’t quite an all-timer. And it’s the all-timers that I’m celebrating in this column. In chronological order, I will present my picks for the 10 most unforgettable body-shot KOs in boxing history.

To be clear, these are body shots that ended fights. Amir Khan’s first-round left to the liver against Marcos Maidana, Micky Ward’s hook in the incredible ninth round of the first Arturo Gatti fight, Daniel Geale’s sixth-round belly-buster against Darren Barker, the Naoya Inoue left to the body that made Nonito Donaire jog halfway across the ring in the 11th round of their first fight – these were all highly memorable body punches. But they belong on a different list, one feteing the fighters who did the most miraculous jobs of rising from body-shot knockdowns and soldiering on.

These are the most memorable body-shot knockouts, and they weren’t all memorable for the same reasons. Some had a lot to do with the circumstances. Others are on this list for sheer brutality and aesthetic viciousness. As it happens, with one exception, they’re all fairly modern. Maybe that exposes gaps in my historical knowledge (and in all the research sources I used), as surely there had to have been a few epic body-shot knockouts in the first 80 years of the 20th century. But for whatever reason, there aren’t many old school body-shot KOs that anyone still talks about.

Before I dive into the top 10, five honorable mentions that just missed the cut (all of which happen to be from the 21st century): Saul “Canelo” Alvarez KO9 Liam Smith, Ryan Garcia KO7 Luke Campbell, Terence Crawford KO3 Julius Indongo, Arturo Gatti KO2 Leonard Dorin and Marco Antonio Barrera KO3 Jesse Benavides. These were each great and memorable knockouts, but to me, they finished a shade outside the top 10. If one of those honorable mentions is an all-time favorite of yours, I apologize for the gut punch – and you’re free to bellyache about it in the comments section.

And now, presented chronologically, the top 10 most unforgettable KOs that their victims just couldn’t stomach:

March 17, 1897: Bob Fitzsimmons KO14 Jim Corbett

Here’s the exception to the “they’re all fairly modern” but. Say the words “Solar Plexus Punch” to a true boxing fan, and they’ll instantly know what fight you’re talking about. This fight was historic in that the heavyweight title changed hands (for just the second time in the era of the Queensberry rules) this day in Carson City, Nevada, and because Fitzsimmons had been knocked down in the sixth round and was, by all accounts, well behind when he landed the left hand to the body that suddenly ended the fight. Corbett went down on his right knee, lurched to the side, tried to get up, but just couldn’t shake off the debilitating effects of the punch before ref George Siler counted 10. And this isn’t just me repeating details I read in a book written by someone who talked to someone whose grandpa was at ringside in 1897. There’s actually film of this! Surely that’s a helpful factor in “the solar plexus punch” standing the test of time in a way that no body-shot KOs of the next 80 years or so did.

Oct. 24, 1980: Gerry Cooney KO1 Ron Lyle

Say what you will about Cooney not reaching his potential or being somewhat of a one-handed fighter, but the big lefthander who boxed out of the orthodox stance could really bang with his dominant hand – and loved digging it to the flanks to set up his knockout shots upstairs. Against Lyle – whom, admittedly, had seen better days – Cooney used an all-out blitz to both the body and head to overwhelm his man, and with a little over 20 seconds left in the opening round, a left uppercut and left hook to the jaw opened him up for a perfect left to the rib cage. Down went Lyle, through the ropes, struggling for breath flat on his back on the ring apron as Arthur Mercante Sr. counted him out. (Bonus: Marv Albert, Larry Merchant and Sugar Ray Leonard together on the call!)

Jan. 20, 1990: Gerald McClellan KO1 James Williamson

This was not a major fight. It was a scheduled eight-round undercard fight in Detroit between a couple of multi-loss middleweight prospects. It shouldn’t have cracked any list of unforgettable anythings. But it did, because the body-shot KO delivered by one of the all-time great punchers, the tragic figure McClellan, was just that ridiculous. And just that loud. It sounded like a 99-mile-per-hour fastball landing in a catcher’s mitt when McClellan buried a wicked left into the bottom of Williamson’s rib cage, and Williamson fell to the canvas on his right side and did the Curly Shuffle under the bottom rope before being counted out. “The G-Man” would later score what is believed to be the fastest body-shot KO ever – a 20-second job against Jay Bell in ’93 – but for my money, this sickening shot against Williamson tops that.

April 12, 1997: Micky Ward KO7 Alfonso Sanchez

Ward’s left hook to the body won him plenty of fights – not just via KO, but also by making the difference on the scorecards in the aforementioned first Gatti fight and in the 2001 Fight of the Year against Emanuel Augustus. But it was never more dramatically the difference between victory and defeat than it was against unbeaten “Poncho” Sanchez on the undercard of the Oscar De La Hoya-Pernell Whitaker pay-per-view. Ward hadn’t just lost every single second of every single round for the first 6½ rounds of the fight; he was so far from competitive that Merchant said flatly 45 seconds into Round 7, “This is a fight that should be stopped.” A minute later, Merchant incredulously asked, “What am I looking at here?!” as Sanchez writhed on the canvas. A single left to the liver flipped a one-sided fight and launched Ward’s career comeback.

Sept. 6, 1997: Erik Morales KO11 Daniel Zaragoza

This was a passing-of-the-torch fight from a 39-year-old future Hall of Famer from Mexico to a 21-year-old future Hall of Famer from Mexico, and it ended with an unusual and poetic body blast. Zarazoga was fading fast in the 11th round of what had been a close fight when Morales pushed out a jab, and as Zaragoza raised his gloves to defend, “El Terrible” followed with a straight right hand to the pit of the stomach. Zarazoga rolled onto his back, sat up, acknowledged his opponent and took the count, the last vestiges of fighting spirit beaten out of him. Morales had body-shotted “The Mouse” into retirement to claim his first major title and launch a career at the championship level that turned out to be even greater than that of the old man he had just conquered.

April 25, 1998: Roy Jones Jr. KO4 Virgil Hill

If you were hoping for an answer to that teased trivia question about only one body-shot KO winning “The Ring” Knockout of the Year award, now you get it. Body work was rarely a major part of Jones’ repertoire, but it took only one to create perhaps the signature knockout of his career, a right hand to Hill’s ribs that dropped “Quicksilver” in extreme agony. The internet will tell you everything from “Hill suffered a small hairline fracture” to “Jones fully broke three of his ribs with one shot.” So let’s just agree on the details as Roy rapped them in “Y’All Must’ve Forgot”: “Will there ever be another Roy Jones? Probably not. Stopped Virgil Hill with a body shot.” (I’ll save the top 10 most cringeworthy lyrics from “Y’All Must’ve Forgot” for a future column.)

Sept. 18, 2004: Bernard Hopkins KO9 Oscar De La Hoya

The punch that ended this fight didn’t look like much. Whether in real time or in slo-mo, there didn’t appear to be a lot behind Hopkins’ left hand to the body – which is why some fans insist to this day that De La Hoya had to have been faking its effects. But, assuming you’re not a conspiracy theorist, what you see midway through the ninth round is “The Executioner” placing a left in the perfect spot, directly on the liver, such that the force of it didn’t matter much. Whatever you think of the punch, this was the most significant boxing match to end on a body shot since Fitzsimmons vs. Corbett. It was a pay-per-view superfight that inspired lots of explanations to casual fans about the pain and damage caused when a gloved fist lands in the right way just above the beltline.

June 23, 2007: Ricky Hatton KO4 Jose Luis Castillo

Was former lightweight champ Castillo shot coming into this fight? That’s a matter of some debate. Was he shot by the time Hatton was done with him? Most definitely. Hatton had always been an exceptional body puncher – his 2001 fight with veteran Freddie Pendleton stands out as another vicious body finish – and Castillo learned first-hand that “The Hitman” was as dangerous downstairs as most of his own Mexican countrymen. Two minutes into the fourth round, Hatton twisted his hips and buried a single left hook into Castillo’s side, and “El Temible” turned his back, took a half step toward the ropes and sunk to a knee, where he remained, mouthpiece hanging out, until referee Joe Cortez was finished counting.

June 29, 2013: Gennady Golovkin KO3 Matthew Macklin

Sign up to fight “Triple G,” get a double broken rib for your trouble. Yep, Golovkin fractured two of Macklin’s rib bones with the left hand he landed in Round 3 of this bout. The first thing that dropped was Macklin’s jaw, as he yelped in pain, then he dropped to a knee, and quickly he was prone on the canvas, writhing, unable to rise. Golovkin had a remarkable run for a few years of seemingly every knockout being unforgettable in a different way, and the Macklin fight would forever be “the body-shot knockout” in his collection. Golovkin didn’t even need to stumble into a new catchphrase in the post-fight interview to make this one memorable. No “good boy” or “big drama show” required; just one blood-curdling left hand.

Sept. 26, 2020: Jermell Charlo KO8 Jeison Rosario

This one was as memorably weird a body-shot knockout as you’ll see, for multiple reasons. Fought in a mostly empty, and thus eerily quiet, Mohegan Sun Arena just as sports were returning amid COVID restrictions, Charlo scored the rare jab-to-the-body knockout, thrusting a left hand into Rosario’s lower gut and sending him to the canvas on his back. And then it got stranger, as Rosario lay supine and began convulsing, as if his body wanted to do “The Worm” but he couldn’t get onto his stomach to perform the breakdance. A full 123 years after the Solar Plexus Punch, Charlo and Rosario reminded us that rather strange and shocking things can happen when you punch a man to the body.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, Ringside Seat, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X or LinkedIn, or via email at [email protected].