Boxing is an odd sport, when you think about it.

On the one hand, it is the best demonstration of physical strength, taking on an opponent and using nothing but your fists. On the other, it is a sport that is brutal in its nature, literally asking people to punch each other in the head as many times as it takes to win.

When you get punched in the head, of course, you run the very real risk of being knocked out by the person doing the punching. Winning by a knockout is the purest way to win a boxing match, with some fighters able to manage it more often than others thanks to their punching power.

What is a Knockout?

When it comes to boxing, it is important to differentiate between a knockout and a technical knockout. The former is usually denoted as a KO, when compared to a TKO for the latter.

A knockout in boxing is a punch thrown that ends the fight. It is not uncommon for single blows to the head to have such power when they hit the jawline or temple that they cause a loss of consciousness. A punch doesn’t need to knock out the opposition in order to be a knockout blow, however. A body shot can cause such pain that it becomes debilitating, resulting in the fighter dropping out of the bout.

@knockouts73 onepunch#brutal#knockouts#fighting#fightclub#boxing#💀💀💀 ♬ Carrie – Ugovhb & EF

Rather than requiring an opponent to be knocked unconscious with a blow, a knockout is usually awarded in boxing when a fighter goes down onto the canvas and is unable to make it back up onto their feet within a count of ten. This can be because of pain or because of disorientation, as decided upon by the match referee.

The referee deciding that a boxer cannot carry on for some reason during a round is what constitutes a technical knockout, whilst in amateur boxing a TKO can be awarded if a boxer is knocked to the ground three times during the course of a fight.

The Record Knockout Artists

It is fair to say that the record for the most knockouts during a career is unlikely to be beaten any time soon. That is on account of the fact that fighters take part in significantly fewer bouts nowadays compared to in years gone by.

The health and safety around boxing is much more prevalent now than it was at the turn of the 20th century, for example, so the authorities simply won’t allow a fighter to get involved in that many boxing matches for the good of their long-term health.

Here is a look at the top ten boxers who have officially enjoyed more knockouts than anyone else:

Is Percentage of Knockouts More Important?

One thing that must be considered when looking at a boxer’s knockout record is the percentage of their fights that were ended thanks to their ability to knock out their opponent. After all, Billy Bird, who tops the list in terms of knockouts achieved, won 260 times during his career.

That is the most on the list of the top ten boxers by some distance, winning double the amount of fights that Peter Maher was successful in. However, Maher had a much higher knockout percentage, winning 80% of his victorious fights via that method compared to the 53.46% that Bird managed.

Of course, the whole point of this article is to look at the boxers that achieved the most knockouts during their career and Bird has that statistic won hands down. Yet it is still worth drawing your attention to that knockout percentage, when you consider that it is the best representative of just how powerful a boxer could be during their fighting careers.

These statistics also pay no mind to the division that the fighters were taking part in. A fighter in the featherweight division, even if they have a large knockout percentage, would still struggle against a knockout specialist in the heavyweight division.

Taking a Closer Look at the Top 5

Now that we know the top ten of boxers who have achieved the most knockouts in the history of the sport, it is worth taking a closer look at the best ones in order to learn a little bit more about them and how they managed to achieve what they achieved during their careers.

Billy Bird – 139 Knockouts

A boxer from the United Kingdom, Billy Bird took part in 356 professional boxing matches during his career. He ended up with a record of 250 wins, 73 losses and 20 draws, with 139 of those wins coming courtesy of a knockout. He spent the vast majority of his career taking part in fights in England, only venturing out of the country twice. The first was when he travelled to Belgium in order to go up against Joe Ralph, whilst the second was for a fight against Mario Bosisio a year later. A native of Chelsea in London, he spent his career fighting as a welterweight.

Archie Moore – 132 Knockouts

Taking part in a total of 220 fights, Archie Moore won 186 of them and lost just 23, drawing the other ten. His career began as a middleweight, ending up as a heavyweight fighter before retiring. Unlike most of the boxers on this list, Moore did actually win some titles. His career lasted for 27 years, during which time the ‘old mongoose’ pulled off 132 knockouts. He was made part of the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, coming close to being named the National Boxing Association heavyweight champion when he took Rocky Marciano to the ninth round before being knocked out.

Young Stribling – 129 Knockouts

William Lawrence Stribling Junior became known as Young Stribling during a career that saw him fight his way up from featherweight to heavyweight. In 1931, he went up against Max Schmelling for the world heavyweight title in a bout that was named Fight of the Year by Ring Magazine. In 1965, Stribling was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, making it into the International Boxing Hall of Fame 31 years later. Managing 129 knockouts during his career, his mother reportedly wanted him to be a boxer from when he was a baby and he managed it all whilst also being a vegetarian.

Sam Langford – 126 Knockouts

Hailing from Nova Scotia in Canada, Sam Langford was one of the best boxers of the early part of the 20th century. There are many who look at the history of boxing and consider him to be one of the best fighters of all time, defeating numerous champions and legends in each weight class as he moved from being a lightweight to a heavyweight during the course of his career. Even when he was a heavyweight, he was still thought of as being a devastating puncher, which can be borne out in the fact that he took part in 314 fights, winning 210 of them and seeing 126 wins coming by KO.

Buck Smith – 121 Knockouts

The only one of the top five boxers who fought during the colour television era, Buck Smith was born in 1965 and went on to become one of the all-time knockout fighters. Although he was always considered little more than a journeyman fighter, taking part in 228 fights during his career, the fact that he knocked out his opponents 121 times is why he features on our list. He only turned professional in 1987, doing so without ever having boxed prior to then. He lost his first fight but went the distance, becoming obsessed with making it as a fighter in the years that followed.

How the Heavyweights Did

It is hardly outrageous to suggest that heavyweight boxing is the top level of the sport, so it is interesting to have a look at how the best boxers did at that class when they were champions.

Here is a look at the top five heavyweight fighters who achieved the most knockouts whilst defending their titles: