After turning pro in 1988, Michael Moorer moved up the ranks of boxing quickly. After 11 fights (and 11 early knockouts), he fought for and won a world light heavyweight title. He did this all within one year. 

Two years later Michael Moorer had gained 38 pounds and jumped into the heavyweight division to test out the waters. He began another run of early knockout victories and stirred up talk of a possible showdown with heavyweight champion.

Two years prior to getting his title shot against Evander Holyfield, Michael Moorer met up with "Smokin'" Bert Cooper.  

Bert Cooper started out as a cruiserweight and gained notoriety early in his career by being trained by Joe Frazier, and made a name for himself with a series of vicious knockouts (if you've never watched any of Cooper's knockouts you're in a for a treat sniffing around YouTube). In 1991, Cooper nearly knocked out Holyfield himself and whisked away the world title. Holyfield rebounded (surprise, surprise) and knocked Cooper out later on in the fight. 

Bert Cooper and Michael Moorer's fight includes a series of back and forth knockouts culminating in Moorer's stunning mid-fight stoppage after landing a viciously beautiful uppercut that Cooper never saw coming (Moorer's precision with uppercuts, in my mind, is unparalleled in heavyweight history). 

While this may be something of an obscure fight to most fight fans, it has nothing to do with the merit of the action. This fight has as much explosive firepower as George Foreman and Ron Lyle, and for my money is one of the best slugfests ever staged by heavyweights. 

Incidentally, Bert Cooper happens to be one of the most exciting heavyweights I've ever seen in terms of creating thrilling fights, whether he knocks people out or gets knocked out himself (he has 35 KOs to his credit and 15 KO losses also!). And Cooper fought a ton of big names in the heavyweight division (Foreman, Riddick Bowe, Joe Mesi, Chris Byrd), so if you've neglected to check out his career, take a peek. He's very fun. 

Happy new year.