After a spate of recent body shot knockouts, including two last weekend by Jermell Charlo and Josh Taylor, IBHOF inductee Graham Houston looks back at past fights where a solitary body blow ended the argument. Celebrated trainer Joe Goossen adds further, expert insight into the history of the body shot KO.
Is it just me? There seem to be more one-punch KOs from a body blow than at any time in ring history. We had two of them last weekend. In the UK, Josh Taylor easily put paid to Thailand’s mandatory 140lbs title challenger Apinun Khongsong with a left hand downstairs from the Scottish boxer’s southpaw stance. It was all over in the first round. Then, across the Atlantic in Connecticut, Jermell Charlo dropped Jeison Rosario for the full count with a left jab to the body in the eighth round of their 154lbs unification title bout.
There have been many good body punchers in ring history. But to take out the other boxer with one punch to the body just seems more of a recent thing. Not so, says veteran trainer Joe Goossen.
Speaking over the phone from Los Angeles, Goossen reminded me that his slick southpaw Michael Nunn essentially won the IBF middleweight title by crunching Frank Tate with a left hand to the body. I was ringside for that fight at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, in July 1988. What happened was that Nunn ripped a left uppercut to the body in the closing moments of the eighth round, crumpling Tate to his hands and knees. Tate barely beat the count and was saved by the bell. He had nothing left, and Nunn overwhelmed him with blazing hand speed in the ninth, prompting referee Mills Lane to signal the finish.
To all intents, Nunn’s left hand to the body decided the fight in the eighth, but it wasn’t actually a one-shot KO blow to the body. (Trainer Goossen argued that it should have been, feeling that Tate didn’t beat the count; TV replays showed Tate slowly hauling himself up at the count of eight.)
Still, Goossen feels that a KO from one punch to the body isn’t all that unusual. “I’d say that my guy Rafael Ruelas won half of his first 20 fights with a one-punch finish to the body,” Goossen said. “Take his fight with Jaime Balboa [in December 1996]. Now Balboa was a tough veteran but Rafael got him out of there with a left hook to the body. Look it up.”
I did indeed look it up and, sure enough, my notes remind me that the future lightweight champion put Balboa down for the count with a left hook to the body.
“When I used to go to the fights at the old Olympic Auditorium you’d see great fighters end it with a body shot,” Goossen added. “If the guy they were fighting could take it upstairs they’d go down to the body and it would be all over. Maybe it just seems there are more one-punch KOs to the body these days because people are able to see more of the fights [on TV and streaming services].
“I didn’t see the Josh Taylor fight but he’s a southpaw, and the southpaw’s power hand, the left hand, is on the same side as the other guy’s liver, the right side of the body, so a southpaw can be real effective with a left hand to the body.
“With the Charlo fight, it was a jab to the solar plexus but Charlo really stepped in with that jab. It was like a deep thrust from a fencer. The momentum was going flush into Rosario’s belly. You could see Rosario was really hurt — you’d be hard pressed to find a guy who could act like that if he wasn’t hurt.
Photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime.
“The thing is, you don’t need to wind up a punch to hurt a guy to the body. You don’t need a lot of space. Nunn’s left hand to the body [in the Tate fight] probably travelled three or four inches. With a body punch, it doesn’t take that much. The effect of a liver shot is that the other guy is kind of paralysed.
“Oscar De La Hoya didn’t go down easily but you saw what happened when Bernard Hopkins hit him with a left hook to the liver. Many, many fighters will tell you they’d rather get hit in the face than take a liver shot.”
So, body punches can have a crippling effect, no argument there, but, still, I’m struggling to think of too many actual one-shot finishes downstairs before, say, the late 1990s. I suppose the most famous would be Bob Fitzsimmons knocking out Gentleman Jim Corbett to win the heavyweight title way back in 1897. Ring historian Arne Lang notes in his book Prizefighting that Corbett, who dropped Fitzsimmons in the sixth round, “was still ahead entering the 14th round when Fitzsimmons paralyzed him with a punch that landed in the pit of the stomach, slightly to the right of his heart”.
Somewhere in heaven, old Ruby Robert is nodding approval at Jermell Charlo’s one-punch finishing jolt to the midsection.
Meanwhile, here are 10 fights that ended with one punch underneath.
GENNADY GOLOVKIN KO3 MATTHEW MACKLIN
MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort, Connecticut, June 29, 2013.
Middleweight champ Golovkin backed up Macklin on the ropes, threw a couple of quick uppercuts and then, with his opponent’s guard raised, ripped a left hook underneath that dropped the challenger in such a way that you knew the fight was over. “What we just saw was not ordinary, it was extraordinary, that kind of punching power,” HBO analyst Max Kellerman informed viewers.
VASILIY LOMACHENKO KO10 JORGE LINARES
Madison Square Garden, May 12, 2018.
Down in the sixth round and in a tough, close battle for nine rounds, lightweight champion Lomachenko broke through with a left to the body from his southpaw posture to end Linares’ challenge in the 10th. Although Linares was up at the count of nine he was still bent over from the effects of the body blow and referee Ricky Gonzalez waved the finish.
BERNARD HOPKINS KO9 OSCAR DE LA HOYA
MGM Grand, Las Vegas, September 18, 2004.
De La Hoya was in front on one judge’s card when challenging middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins but a left hook to the body had the five-weight world champion on his hands and knees, pounding a fist on the canvas in frustration.
MICKY WARD KO7 ALFONSO SANCHEZ
Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, April 12, 1997.
Mexico’s undefeated junior welter Sanchez was dominating this scheduled 10-rounder when Irish Micky whipped in his noted left hook to the liver just when the fight seemed a lost cause. Sanchez had won all six completed rounds on the judges’ cards and dropped Ward in the fifth. With Ward cut over the eye, referee Mitch Halpern seemed in two minds about stopping the fight. But Ward finally began to let his left hook go in the seventh — and landed the finisher.
ROY JONES JR. KO4 VIRGIL HILL
Biloxi, Mississippi, April 25, 1998.
This light-heavy bout looked like going the full 12 rounds when Jones fired off a looping right hand to the body that sent Hill to the canvas, reaching around to his kidney region as if he’d been shot by a sniper.
GERRY PENALOSA KO7 JHONNY GONZALEZ
Sacramento, August 11, 2007.
Gonzalez was winning this bantamweight title bout on two of the judges’ cards when Filipino Penalosa suddenly drove in a left to the body from his southpaw stance in the seventh round. The blow seemed to suck all the air out of Gonzalez’ body and the Mexican boxer dropped to one knee to be counted out.
JORGE ARCE TKO6 TOMAS ROJAS
Hard Rock Casino Hotel, Las Vegas, September 16, 2007.
Tall, rangy southpaw Rojas was boxing really well against the shorter, stronger Arce, having won the first five rounds on two of the judges’ cards in this all-Mexico bantam bout. (The third judge had Rojas up by one point.) But, having been made to miss all night, a desperate-looking Arce found the big left hook he had been looking for — but to the body and not the head. Although Rojas beat the count he sagged into the ropes and referee Joe Cortez immediately waved the fight over.
ARTURO GATTI KO2 LEONARDO DORIN
Atlantic City, July 24, 2004.
Romanian-born Dorin was known to have a sturdy chin and his junior welterweight title fight with crowd-pleaser Gatti looked like being a long, gruelling one. But Gatti had learned something from his three fights with Micky Ward, delivering a Ward-style left hook to the body to put Dorin down for the count in the second round.
RICKY HATTON KO4 JOSE LUIS CASTILLO
Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, June 23, 2007.
Hatton was clever at setting up his left hook to the body by first “touching” his opponent with a hook up top, to get the other boxer to raise his right elbow (a move also used with great success by Irish Micky Ward). Mexican veteran Castillo probably never expected to be hit that hard downstairs. He turned away, dropped to one knee and was counted out, with Hatton retaining his junior welter title and setting the stage for a welterweight title bid against Floyd Mayweather.
CARL FROCH KO3 TONY DODSON
Nottingham, November 24, 2006.
Froch sank in a left hook to the body to bring this British middleweight bout to an abrupt conclusion.
Main image: Josh Taylor celebrates after a left hand to the body KOed Apinun Khongsong last weekend. Photo: Queensberry Promotions.