KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR
Anthony Joshua ended Francis Ngannou's pro boxing aspirations in swift and brutal fashion.
bout had seen plenty of heated exchanges by the 10th round, both fighters strafing each other in full-power attacks that sometimes saw Leo come out on top with punch-and- maul tactics and other times favored the freestyle swings from Lopez. So it was extra shocking to see the fight end with a single clean punch. After being separated from a clinch a little over a minute into the round, the pair came together and Lopez, the incumbent titlist, opted for a stock jab as his opening move. Leo waited for the farthest point of commitment, then countered. The solitary left hook swiveled Lopez’s head over his shoulder and erased his legs immediately, leaving the now-former
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titleholder flat on his back, arms at his sides like a sunbather confused to be waking up in an arena to the sound of raucous cheering.
hands at the same time – Dubois took the high road and Joshua took the low road, and Dubois got there first. “AJ” received the full force of the punch on his chin and dropped into a 250-pound heap against the ropes, where he was counted out at 0:59.
grimacing Julio Cesar Chavez watched from ringside in Munguia’s hometown, the French sub-underdog pushed aside five rounds of being battered around the ring and connected with a single right hand that immediately floored Munguia and left him to be counted out for the first time in his career at 2:36 of the sixth. ALSO NOTABLE: • Anthony Joshua KO 2 Francis Ngannou • Zhilei Zhang KO 5 Deontay Wilder • Osleys Iglesias KO 1 Evgeny Shvedenko • Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez KO 7 Juan Francisco Estrada • Fabio Wardley KO 1 Frazer Clarke
4. DANIEL DUBOIS KO 5 ANTHONY JOSHUA September 21, Wembley Stadium, London
5. BRUNO SURACE KO 6 JAIME MUNGUIA December 14, Estadio Caliente, Tijuana, Mexico
After an inexplicably unprotected Anthony Joshua had gone down in the first round from an overhand right, again under heavy fire in the third and once more in the fourth from what looked like a jab, the dejected Brit seemed to get a much-needed shot of adrenaline when he landed a hard right cross on countryman Daniel Dubois early in the fifth. Amid the sound of 96,000 people losing their minds, Joshua went into attack mode and drove Dubois backward, looking for the single-punch miracle that can always happen in heavyweight boxing. The defending IBF titleholder remained calm, though, and then both men threw right
Nobody was under the impression that Jaime Munguia had an airtight defense, and in fact his “openness” in being an all-action super middleweight with a carbide chin is largely responsible for his popularity. Had the 28-year-old’s past, including a punishing 12-round encounter with Canelo Alvarez in May, started to catch up with him? Maybe. But take nothing away from the undefeated Bruno Surace, even if (and perhaps especially because) his 16% KO ratio gave no hint that he could do what he did. As a
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