Who Holds the Highest Knockout %?
By Ken Hissner (June 17, 2010) Doghouse Boxing  
I remember three boxers who fought so many stiffs but had a high knockout percentage. One fought for the light heavyweight title, another fought Muhammad Ali and the last fought Ray Mercer. They all had a 98% knockout percentage. Before I get to them I searched for boxers who were either world champions or contenders. I came up with a total of 15 names with a knockout percentage ranging from 89% to 100%.

The obvious knockout king was Venezuela’s Edwin Valero 27-0, with 27 knockouts, who won the WBA Super featherweight and the WBC Lightweight titles. Since he was killed in April of this year there may never be anyone topping that record. The other with a 100% was heavyweight Mac Foster, 30-6, with 30 knockouts. He lost a 15 round decision to Muhammad Ali in a non-title bout.

Current WBC heavyweight and former WBO champion Vitali Klitschko is 40-2, with 38 knockouts. Joining him is Puerto Rico’s Wilfredo Gomez who held the WBC Super Bantam and Featherweight titles, and was 44-3-1, with 42 knockouts. Mexico‘s Carlos Zarate was the WBC Bantamweight champion with a 66-4 record and 63 knockouts. Current WBA heavyweight champion David Haye is 24-1, with 22 knockouts. All four are at 95%.

Gerald McClellan was the WBC Middleweight champion with a 31-3 record and 29 knockouts for a 93%. Heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano was 49-0, with 43 knockouts. Earnie Shavers considered the hardest hitting fighter of all time was 74-14-1, with 68 knockouts. Former WBA Light Middleweight and WBC Middleweight champion Julian Jackson was 55-6 with 49 knockouts. All three were at 90%. Former heavyweight champions George Foreman and Mike Tyson were at 89%. Foreman was 76-5, with 68 knockouts. Tyson was 50-6 with 44 knockouts.

Getting back to my original 98% fighters are names that most have never heard of. Philadelphia’s Billy “Blackjack” Fox was 48-9-1 with 47 knockouts. He was played by Eddie Mustafa Muhammad in the “Raging Bull” movie. The actuation is that Jack LaMotta “fell” down for Fox. At the start of Fox’s career he won all his 36 fights by knockout and challenged light heavyweight champion Gus Lesnevich lasting only 1:58 into the 1st round. Five months later Fox won his only decision over Johnny Colan.

Another 98% fighter was Don “The Man of Steel” Steele, from South Carolina, with a 45-6 record and 44 knockouts. Steel had won his first 41fights by knockout along with a no contest in his third fight. He then met his first legitimate fighter when he traveled to Denmark and lost to 38-0 Brian Nielsen for the IBO heavyweight title in 1997. Four years later he fought Ray Mercer and was stopped in 5 rounds. Just three fights away from retiring he went the distance with Giles Knox for the South Carolina state title.

The last 98% fighter was LaMar Clark, from Cedar City, Utah, who was 44-3, with 43 knockouts. Believe it or not the only bout he went the distance was in his professional debut defeating John Hicks over 6 rounds. Two fights and 14 days later he stopped Hicks in 3 rounds. Clark was 43-0 with 42 knockouts when he took on Bartolo Soni, in Ogden, Utah losing in the 9th round. In his last fight his opponent was 5-0 Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali. Clark was knocked out in the 2nd round and retired, in April of 1961.

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