By Ken Hissner: The UK’s Billy Bird ended with a record of 260-73-20 with a record 139 knockouts from 1920 to 1948 from Chelsea and London.
For years, I thought light heavyweight champion Archie ‘Old Mongoose’ Moore, 186-23-10, held the record with 132 knockouts from 1935 to 1963. In a world title fight, he came off the canvas off the canvas twice to stop Yvon Durelle, dropping him four times.
Right behind Moore is Young ‘King of the Canebreaks’ Stribling, 224-13-14, with 129 knockouts from 1921 to 1933 from Macon, Georgia.
Next would be Sam ‘The Boston Bonecrusher’ Langford, 178-30-38, with 126 stoppages from Boston born in Nova Scotia. Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey claimed Langford was the only fighter he feared.
When you talk about boxing’s hardest punchers, names like Earnie ‘Black Destroyer’ Shavers, 76-14-1 with 70 knockouts is some percentage record. He had Larry ‘The Easton Assasin’ Holmes down but lost. He was said to have asthma and usually faded in the second half of fights.
He knocked out Ken Norton in the first round. He came off the canvas in the tenth and last round to knock out Roy Williams. Shavers had Ron Lyle down in the second, only to be stopped in the sixth round. He knocked out Jimmy Ellis in the first round. He stopped Jimmy Young in three rounds.
Two-division world champion Edwin Valero was 27-0 with all knockouts. “Big” George Foreman, 76-5 with 68 knockouts, stopped ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier twice. He knocked out durable George Chuvalo, who only Frazier did. In a Ring Magazine Fight of the Year, he stopped Ron Lyle.
Ukraine’s heavyweight champ Vitali ‘Dr. Ironfist’ Klitschko was 45-2 with 41 knockouts. Deontay ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder, 43-2-1 with 42 knockouts with two of them over Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz.
Heavyweight Lamar Clark, 43-3 with 42 knockouts over mediocre opposition, lost those three by stoppage. He either stopped you or you him. Two-division world champion Ruben ‘El Puas’ Olivares, 89-13-3 with 79 knockouts, was one of the smallest big punchers.
Heavyweight champ Sonny Liston, 50-4 with 39 knockouts, stopped Floyd Patterson twice, Zora Folley and Cleveland Williams. Williams was 82-13-2 with 62 stoppages.
He knocked out teeth in the first round of Wayne Bethea, who couldn’t come out for the second round. His jab was second to none.
Heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano, 49-0 with 43 knockouts known to wear you down by punching you on the arms before taking you out.
Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey, 53-6-8 with 43 stoppages. ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, 50-6 with 44 stoppages.
Light Heavyweight champ Bob Foster, 56-8-1 with 46 stoppages, destroyed his weight class but had little success in heavyweight.
Middleweight champ Stanley ‘The Michigan Assassin’ Ketchel, 49-5-3 with 46 stoppages, even knocked down heavyweight champ Jack ‘The Galveston Giant’ Johnson.
Three-division world champ Henry ‘Homicide Hank’ Armstrong, 149-21-10 with 99 stoppages. He was possibly the second-greatest boxer pound-for-pound.
The best at pound-for-pound two-division world champ ‘Sugar’ Ray Robinson, 174-19-6 with 109 stoppages.