Five surprising knockouts after Holm’s stunning Rousey stoppage

Antonio Tarver v Roy Jones Jr 2004

In their first fight, Jones Jr came away with a points decision in 2003, but a year later, he would be left lying on the canvas after a devastating left hand from Tarver.

Tarver stunned everyone, including his opponent, who was regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world at the time, landing a clinical left hand to down Jones Jr for a second-round upset.

Corrie Sanders v Wladimir Klitschko 2003

In what was deemed as a tune-up test for Klitschko, looking to easily put away Sanders before moving up to a tougher opponent, the big Ukrainian got more than he bargained for in Germany.

His 37-year-old foe had been talking about retirement leading up this bout, and had only put in three rounds of boxing within the previous three years beforehand, but he managed to outclass Klitschko in two rounds.

After flooring the heavyweight champion four times in the opening two rounds, the referee had to call it quits for Klitschko as he was sent crashing to the mat after just the second bell. The Ukrainian has since gone on to dominate the division, but is 6/1 to be stopped by Tyson Fury later this month.

Randy Couture v Chuck Liddell 2003

Couture dropped down to the 205 pounds limit to face Liddell for the world title at UFC 43, coming into the clash on the back of two straight defeats and was never expected to claim the light-heavyweight strap.

Although, he proved critics wrong and stunned the dominant world champion, with his wrestling manoeuvre downing Liddell and setting up a brutal ground-and-pound before the bout was stopped.

Hasim Rahman v Lennox Lewis 2001

Back in 2001, nobody gave Rahman so much as a chance to overcome heavyweight great Lewis but, after five gruelling rounds in their bout in South Africa, the latter Englishman was caught by a devastating right hand which knocked him out cold. A truly stunning upset.

Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson 1990

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” Tyson once famously said, and his own words came true in the 10th round of his Toyko battle with huge underdog Douglas in 1990.

In what was arguably the greatest boxing upset in history, Douglas shocked the world when he downed the seemingly unstoppable and previously unbeaten Tyson, with a deadly right uppercut seeing his opponent taken out.

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