After this weekends UFC card, with 9 of 12 fights decided by a decision, and the dwindling state of boxing, never mind its awful heavyweight division and the walking cure for insomnia known as the klitschko brothers, one longs for the days of hard hitting knock out artists.
Of course obvious strikers come to mind when talking about boxing; Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr, Razor Ruddock, Tommy Hearns, but perhaps no one exemplified the title of KO artist more than Julian Jackson.
Born in the Virgin Islands, Jackson began his professional boxing career in 1981. He got his record to 29-0 before suffering his first loss, more importantly 27 of those wins were by KO or TKO. Fighting in the middle class and light middle class ranks, Jackson was a three time champion in those respective divisions. By the end of his career Jackson compiled a record of 55 wins with only 6 losses, and 49 of those wins by KO.
What made his punching power so great was his overall deficiencies in other aspects of boxing. For a fighter in the talented middleweight division, Jacksons defense, footwork, and hand speed, always seemed to be second best in the ring. However it was the threat of that one punch that was the great equalizer. A heavy handed fighter that would make every punch count, Jackson would wear his opponents down mentally, and physically. In some of his biggest fights and most notorious K.O.'s. Jackson would be behind in the fight when he would connect with the home run shot. If you got caught flicking a jab or out there just to create space or abandoned your guard to go in for the kill, Jackson would make you pay. Perhaps there is no better example than one of his most infamous of knockouts which came again Herol Grahm, who was winning the fight going into the fourth round, and even had Jackson on the ropes. That is where Grahm made his biggest mistake, going in for the kill, Herol threw a straight left, setting up for a right hook, when he left his chin open for a split second. After that it was all over, or as the announcer put it, "he was gone before he hit the floor."
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