Aging Boxers Who Have Permanently Lost Their Knockout Power

Knockouts are good for business.

Like wrecks in auto racing, right or wrong, it's what many fans hope to see during a big fight on TV. Not surprisingly, the most popular boxers and the ones who make the most money—other than Floyd Mayweather Jr.—are often the guys who score most of their wins by KO or TKO.

Knockouts are what made Mike Tyson a legend and are a major part of why Gennady Golovkin has become a rising star in the sport. However, like everything else in life, the power it takes to score those knockdowns and gain stoppage victories fades over time as a fighter ages.

As they age their muscle mass naturally deteriorates some; they're not able to train the same way as they used to, and injuries also find a way to impact how much power a boxer can generate.

The same thing happens to power hitters in baseball as they age; their home run totals see a steady decline by the time they reach their mid-30s. It's nothing to be embarrassed about; it's just a part of life.

Like a basketball player who relies on amazing natural athleticism to get to the basket and never develops a jump shot, possessing great power can mask or cover up flaws in a boxer's overall game or skill set.

Once that power fades and greater technique is required to win, that's when a good fighter either becomes legendary or is dismissed as a one-trick pony.

It's kind of a crossroads, if you will, that the boxers on this list are now facing, have already overcome or have failed to meet the challenge of by not adapting to a new style.

Manny Pacquiao

Vincent Yu/Associated Press

Age: 35

Recent Knockout Victories: Hasn't recorded a KO or TKO victory since 2009, when he stopped Miguel Cotto in the 12th round.

Early in his career and all the way through the fight against Cotto, Manny Pacquiao was always a ferocious fighter who landed punches in bunches and stopped most of his opponents before the fight reached a decision.

Pacquiao has had eight fights since that win over Cotto and hasn't stopped a single opponent. He certainly hurt Antonio Margarito, Joshua Clottey and Shane Mosley during their fights, but he wasn't able to close the show like he did early in his career.

There appears to be multiple reasons for that. Certainly age is a factor, but it also seems like Pacquiao has let other interests, such as the entertainment business and being a politician in his native country, take some of his time and focus away from dominating in the ring.

There's also the feeling by some, which was expressed by Timothy Bradley Jr. before their second fight last April, that Pacquiao has "lost the fire" he once had and doesn't truly look for a knockout anymore out of sympathy for the other fighter or whatever other possible reason he would have for compassion.

Pacquiao still looks fast with his movements and accurate with his punches inside the ring, but it's hard to deny that something besides age has caused his power to disappear.

Bernard Hopkins

Luis M. Alvarez/Associated Press

Age: 49

Recent Knockout Victories: Bernard Hopkins hasn't stopped an opponent early since a ninth-round knockout of Oscar De La Hoya in 2004. Yes, that's 2004 when President George W. Bush was still serving his first term in office.

Hopkins with his defensive style has become a boxer who doesn't seek knockouts as a way to secure victory, but it wasn't always that way. After his victory over De La Hoya, Hopkins had 32 knockouts out of 45 career victories at the time, which isn't a bad percentage.

At that point his percentage of victories by knockout was 71.11 percent which is higher than the career percentage of victories by knockout of Canelo Alvarez—31 out of 44 for 70.45 percent—whom most fans consider to be more offensive-minded or someone more willing to have action fights than Hopkins.

So why the slowdown?

Age was certainly a huge factor as Hopkins was already 39 years old at the time of the fight against De La Hoya. Being smart with his defense has always been a part of Hopkins' strategy, but as he aged and passed the age of 40 I'm guessing that strategy increased as he started thinking about his longevity.

Breaking records like he has in recent years for being the oldest man to do this or that seems to be important to Hopkins. Obviously achieving those goals would be nearly impossible at his age if he went out and engaged in brawls in the ring.

Hopkins scored a knockdown against Beibut Shumenov in his last fight, so there are still a couple of bullets left in the chamber, but he's certainly been more cautious about when he chooses to pull the trigger.

Zab Judah

Al Bello/Getty Images

Age: 36

Recent Knockout Victories: Has just one stoppage victory over the last three calendar years from the date this article was published. Zab Judah did have a span between 2009 and 2011 where he scored three TKO victories over four fights, but those three opponents had 29 combined career losses.

With nine losses overall during his career and three losses in his last four fights, it seems clear that Judah's time as a high-level fighter is over. That's especially true since his last defeat was to the light-hitting Paulie Malignaggi who was destroyed by Shawn Porter in his very next fight.

In my view Judah's last significant stoppage victory was his 2005 ninth-round TKO of Corey Spinks to win the WBC, WBA and IBF welterweight titles.

It has certainly been awhile.

Sergio Martinez

Rich Schultz/Getty Images

Age: 39

Recent Knockout Victories: Hasn't scored a stoppage victory over his last three fights with the last one coming against Matthew Macklin in March 2012.

Age is probably a factor, but the injuries Sergio Martinez has endured have certainly played a larger role in his declining power and performance in the ring.

Martinez did have a stretch of four straight knockout or stoppage victories between 2010 and 2012, but his physical condition hit a sharp decline after his victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Martinez has had to deal with elbow, shoulder, hand and knee injuries over the last several years which will negatively impact the power of any fighter but especially one nearing the age of 40. He's come out of each of his last three fights with significant injuries; sadly his time at the top is clearly over.

Bottom line, if your hand is broken and your knee is damaged to the point where you can't plant and drive off of it, you're not going to have any power. The physical drop-off was noticeable very early in his last fight against Miguel Cotto which felt more like Martinez was being fed to a hungry lion than a boxing match.

Follow me on Twitter for more boxing analysis and round by round scoring of big fights: @sackedbybmac.