What makes for a KO of the Year? The 2024 frontrunners may offer some insight

When featherweight Angelo Leo ended proceedings in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Aug. 10 with a one-punch knockout win over Luis Alberto Lopez, the devastating result was described by many as a KO of the Year contender.

Prior to Leo’s big win, Lucas Bahdi’s sixth-round stoppage of prospect Ashton Sylve in July was touted as the best knockout of 2024. Both outcomes were examples of violent, dramatic knockouts from roughly the past eight months of boxing action, but even given their obvious merits, neither explicitly answers the question: What are the criteria that make a Knockout of the Year.

Stoppages can happen in diverse ways – by one punch or many, body blow or head shot. So many factors make KOs exciting, including factors beyond their mechanics. From comeback wins to final-round theatrics in blockbuster fights, the circumstances surrounding a big knockout often play a role in what we consider to be quality worthy of the best of the year.

In 1994, a 45-year-old George Foreman’s stunning 10th-round knockout of Michael Moorer shocked the boxing world, with a short Foreman combination catching Moorer on the jaw and Foreman being declared winner of the lineal heavyweight championship when Moorer failed to beat the mandatory eight count.

More recently, Juan Manuel Marquez’s KO of Manny Pacquiao in their fourth fight was regarded as the best stoppage win of 2012. During a back-and-forth firefight, Marquez unloaded a right hand to Pacquiao’s mouth in the sixth round, dropping him to the canvas face-first at the bell and ending the bout abruptly.

In 2019, the Deontay Wilder-Luis Ortiz rematch was adjudged the KO of the Year after Wilder landed a straight right that caught the left eye of Ortiz flush and starched him in the seventh. After Ortiz failed to beat the count, Wilder was rewarded with a stoppage victory.

All these knockouts were recorded under different circumstances. In Wilder’s case, Ortiz had outboxed and dominated him throughout the first six rounds of the fight before Wilder landed that devastating right hand to put his opponent to sleep. Foreman’s award-winning KO of Moorer was earned unfolded similarly. Yet although Pacquiao had been ahead on the scorecards of his 2012 battle with Marquez, theirs was a much more evenly contested fight.

Going into the final four months of the year, there have been a handful of exciting KO wins that could pass as the best in the year under review. With that, below we present the top candidates for the 2024 KO of the Year:

Isaac Cruz TKO8 Rolando Romero (March 30)

Cruz started the year on a bright note when he snatched a junior welterweight title from the dangerous Romero. Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs) went straight at Romero (15-2, 13 KOs) from the opening bell and authored a dominant display, ending the show in style after a right uppercut dazed the then-titleholder. Cruz followed up with more blistering combinations, forcing the referee to stop the fight.

Naoya Inoue TKO6 Luis Nery (May 6)

Inoue came back from a first-round knockdown on a sharp left hook to earn a spectacular sixth-round knockout over Nery. Inoue (27-0, 24 KOs), who was defending his unified junior featherweight titles, survived the scare and floored Nery (35-2, 27 KOs) with a counter left hook in the second.

“The Monster” went on to record additional knockdowns in the fifth and sixth to retain his belts.

Dmitrii Bivol TKO6 Malik Zinad (June 1)

Zinad did everything he could to stay in the ring with light heavyweight titlist Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) last June, but he literally wasn’t able to stand up to Bivol’s relentless assault in the sixth. Zinad (22-1, 16 KOs) suffered a stoppage defeat after enduring a series of unanswered punches from Bivol.

The twist? It was Bivol’s first knockout victory in six years, since he stopped Sullivan Barrera in 12 rounds in New York in 2018.

Gervonta Davis KO8 Frank Martin (June 15)

It was a sensational win for Davis when he knocked Martin out in the eighth round to successfully defend his lightweight title. Although Martin (18-1, 12 KOs) gave a good account of himself by fighting competitively in the early rounds, Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) proved more clinical after taking over the fight and landing a left uppercut-straight left combination to hand Martin his first career loss.

Jesse Rodriguez KO7 Juan Francisco Estrada (June 29)

Rodriguez captured a junior bantamweight title by a convincing seventh-round knockout of a Mexican legend. Estrada (44-4, 28 KOs) had landed a right hand in the sixth round that knocked down Rodriguez (20-0, 13 KOs) for the first time in his career, but the challenger rose up to turn the tables.

In the seventh round, Rodriguez battered Estrada against the ropes with a combination before landing a left uppercut to the body that sent Estrada – who had previously never been stopped – to the canvas and ended the bout.

Junto Nakatani KO1 Vincent Astrolabio (July 20)

Nakatani made a strong statement with a first-round stoppage victory over Astrolabio at Tokyo’s Kokugikan Arena. Nakatani (28-0, 21 KOs) defended his bantamweight title when he planted a straight left hand to the midsection of Astroabio’s body and the challenger failed to get to his feet after being dropping to the canvas.

Lucas Bahdi KO6 Ashton Sylve (July 20)

Hot prospect Sylve was knocked out cold by Bahdi in the sixth round of last month’s bout, despite his winning all previous five rounds leading up to the stoppage. Sylve (11-1, 9 KOs), the favorite going into the fight, saw his overconfidence exploited when he was sent face-down to the canvas by a Bahdi (17-0, 15 KOs) combination.

Angelo Leo KO10 Luis Alberto Lopez (Aug. 10)

Leo became a two-division titleholder early this month when he landed a left hook to counter a jab from Lopez (30-3, 17 KOs) and close the show in the 10th. Leo (25-1, 12 KOs), who was fighting in front of his Albuquerque home crowd, dropped the then-titleholder, who failed to wake in time from his sleep. The one-punch knockout win was the third stoppage victory for the previously modestly powerful Leo in his past five bouts.

Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at bernardneequaye@gmail.com.