Boxing Betting / Dan Fitch / 11 November 2010 /

Dan Fitch thinks that Audley Harrison will always have a puncher's chance, as he looks at the most shocking knockouts in heavyweight boxing history.

David Haye is the odds on favourite at [1.19] to beat the [6.4] outsider Audley Harrison, but far bigger shocks have occurred over the years, in the unpredictable world of heavyweight boxing.

What keeps boxing fans enthralled by the sport is the fact that the ending can come at any time. Never more is this true than in the heavyweight division, where even the biggest underdogs can carry a killer punch.

Harrison is [7.6] to win by KO and follow in the footsteps of the following men, who threw the form book out of the window with a surprise stoppage. Here are 7 shock heavyweight knockouts.

7. Muhammad Ali v George Foreman

When Muhammad Ali met George Foreman in 1974, the only two men to have beat him were Joe Frazier and Ken Norton. Foreman had destroyed both of these fighters within two rounds and therefore it was no surprise that the heavyweight champion was expected to beat the 32-year old Ali.

What no one had accounted for were Ali's rope-a-dope tactics, which saw him suck up Foreman's best shots and energy for eight rounds, before knocking out his exhausted opponent.

6. George Foreman v Michael Moorer

Twenty years after losing The Rumble In The Jungle, Foreman challenged to regain his heavyweight title at the age of 45. Having come out of retirement in 1987, Foreman had twice fought for a championship belt, but lost on points on both occasions, to Evander Holyfield and Tommy Morrison.

His 1994 clash with the WBA and IBF champion Michael Moorer was predicted to have the same outcome. Moorer had won those titles by outpointing Evander Holyfield and the unbeaten fighter was expected to be too fast for the slow moving Foreman.

Moorer was well ahead on the judges scorecards as Foreman struggled to get to land against his much younger opponent. In the tenth though, the former champ proved that age is only a number, as he connected with a big right hand that sent Moorer to the canvas. Foreman became the oldest man to win the heavyweight championship.

5. Jersey Joe Walcott v Ezzard Charles

Until Foreman broke his record in 1994, the oldest world heavyweight champion of all time was Jersey Joe Walcott, who won the title at his fifth attempt at the age of 37.

Walcott had twice lost to Joe Louis and twice lost to Ezzard Charles in world title clashes. When his fifth title shot against Charles was announced, the bout received much derision, but Jersey Joe proved that he was a just challenger, as he knocked out his opponent in the seventh round of their 1951 match to finally get his hands on the belt.

4. Corrie Sanders v Wladimir Klitschko

Having fought just three rounds in the three years since losing to Hasim Rahman, a world title shot seemed a tall order for the South African Corrie Sanders.

The 37 year old was matched against the WBO title holder Wladimir Klitschko, who had an impressive record of 40-1. Sanders was given no chance, which might be the reason that he won the match and the title. Klitschko looked unmotivated and unprepared for the southpaw, who knocked him down four times in two rounds.

3. Max Schmelling v Joe Louis

With Hitler on the march in Europe, the former world champion and German Max Schmelling, wasn't a popular figure outside of his homeland, when he met the up and coming Joe Louis in 1936.

Louis had an unbeaten record and was ranked as the number one challenger for the world title, with Schmelling as number two. It was the unfancied German who pulled off a shock though, as he became the first man to floor Louis with a fourth round knockdown, before eventually knocking out the American in the twelfth.

Despite the win, the idea of a 'Nazi' fighting for the world title generated bad publicity and after the champ Jim Braddock pulled out of a proposed fight with Schmelling with a hand injury, the champion instead defended his title against Louis. The Brown Bomber won the belt and went on to knock out Schmelling in the first round of a 1938 re-match.

2. Hasim Rahman v Lennox Lewis

Hasim Rahman was a 20/1 underdog when he challenged the world champion Lennox Lewis in 2001. Lewis obviously thought that the outsider didn't pose much of a threat, as instead of preparing himself properly in training, he spent time in the build up to the fight, filming a part in the film Ocean's Eleven.

Rahman took advantage of Lewis' ring rust by knocking him out in the fifth round of their title bout. A re-match followed later in the year, with a better prepared Lewis regaining his title with a fourth round KO.

1. Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson

Another champion who might not have taken his unheralded opponent seriously enough, was Mike Tyson when he met James 'Buster' Douglas in 1990.

Douglas was a 42-1 outsider and was thought of as a mere stepping stone to Tyson's proposed encounter with the then undefeated contender Evander Holyfield. It has been said that Tyson did not prepare properly for the fight, but then Douglas' preparation was also far from ideal, as his mother died 23 days before the fight and he contracted the flu just a day before the bout.

It was Douglas who started the fight as the aggressor, as he took advantage of his better reach. Tyson's eye was swelling, but he came back in the eighth and put Douglas on the deck, only for the challenger to knock Tyson down for the first time in his career in the tenth.

Tyson was counted out. Douglas had shocked the world with his victory and the nature of his win was best summed up by Sports Illustrated, who made Buster their cover star, with the headline: 'Rocky Lives!'

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