The 10 best boxing knockouts of 2024: Counting down the most memorable punches of the year

Given the decisive nature of the thing in question, there is a certain irony to the fact that Uncrowned’s Knockout of the Year vote for 2024 has ended up a tie between Osleys Iglesias’ first-round knockout of Evgeny Shvedenko and Lucas Bahdi’s sixth-round stoppage of Ashton Sylve. However, our collective inability to separate the two knockouts shouldn’t detract from the reality that both not only ended a fight emphatically, but also stood out in a year awash with impressive one-punch finishes.

In the case of Iglesias’ stunner from June, what made the super-middleweight’s knockout so memorable was the scene of devastation it left in its wake. The punch itself — a right hook from the southpaw stance — was one thing, but what truly elevated this knockout to the realm of the unforgettable was how poor Evgeny Shvedenko reacted to it once it landed.

Not enough just to fall directly onto his back, Shvedenko’s body then stiffened on impact, his legs and arms flailing involuntarily as though in the throes of a nightmare. From this position Shvedenko was as helpless as a tortoise flipped on its back and the only person capable of saving him, or just turning him over, was the referee, who mercifully did.

Any knockout will shock, of course, but it’s the images of a knockout that tend to stay with us. Typically, too, these images involve the victim, the one on the canvas, rather than the one who landed the shot and who now stands poised and impatient in a neutral corner. Iglesias, for his part, just waited and hoped Shvedenko would be OK, while Shvedenko, the one whose face we remember, had no idea what happened until he was later shown footage of something he will now struggle to unsee, avoid, or forget.

A similar thing happened to Simon Brown when he copped a huge left hook from Vincent Pettway in 1995. Brown, like Shvedenko, stiffened up and fell dangerously onto his back, at which point he started aiming punches at the lights, functioning only on instinct. All that was left of Brown, in fact, was muscle memory and fumes, and it is hard, even now, to know whether in this scenario you should even be watching a fighter sleepwalk while horizontal. It feels somehow rude, taboo.

The image of Brown punching the air came to mind again when seeing Iglesias knock out Shvedenko, and also when seeing Lucas Bahdi stop Ashton Sylve in Tampa one month later in July.

That finish, unlike Iglesias’, put Sylve on his front rather than his back, yet the feeling when seeing Bahdi land his right cross to left hook combination was really no different. Immediately, watching Sylve fall, you were concerned. You were concerned because of the sound of the punch, you were concerned because Sylve landed directly on his face, and you were concerned because he then stayed in this position, arms by his sides, as Bahdi, the victor, raced around the ring and climbed a post in celebration.

It was, in truth, a stark image even for boxing: Sylve alone in the middle of the ring, his limbs trembling, while the referee chased Bahdi from corner to corner in an effort to calm him down. Yet Bahdi’s exuberance, while not ideal, can still be excused, for up to that point in the fight he had been struggling and therefore knew that this punch — the best he had ever thrown — had changed everything.

It was that aspect that made it special, both for him and for us, and it was that aspect that made it different from the other stunning knockouts produced this year. It was the punch nobody saw coming, least of all Sylve.

3. Daniel Dubois def. Anthony Joshua via fifth-round KO

Although the underdog going in, Daniel Dubois dominated Anthony Joshua from the outset at Wembley Stadium in September and walked him down with consummate ease in the first four rounds, dropping him three times in the process.

It wasn’t until round five, in fact, that Joshua offered some sort of defiance. This came in the form of a huge right hand, which served to both wobble Dubois and sharpen his focus.

Seconds later, as Joshua went in for the finish, Dubois then spotted an opening for his own right hand — and that was that. The IBF had its new heavyweight champion.

4T. Anthony Joshua def. Francis Ngannou via second-round KO

For pure sound and savagery, few knockouts in 2024 can stand alongside what Anthony Joshua did to Francis Ngannou in round two of their fight in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

It was as close as you can get to a picture-perfect knockout, with a wounded Ngannou folded in half by a single right hand. Only the fact it involved a former heavyweight champion against a one-bout novice somewhat diminishes the accomplishment.

4T. Angelo Leo def. Luis Alberto Lopez via 10th-round KO

Although Angelo Leo had a busy and productive 2024, it clearly peaked the moment he slipped a jab from Luis Alberto Lopez and came back with his own left hook in round 10 of an IBF title fight in August.

That shot not only ended a competitive contest, it also delivered Leo his first world title as a featherweight, having previously won a WBO belt at super bantamweight.