Boxing's 20 Most Amazing Knockouts of 2011

Boxing has generated some earth-shattering knockouts this year, both in importance and in visual spectacle.

The spine-tingling sensation of witnessing the painful end of one boxer's hope for victory under the thunderous determination for victory released from another boxer's fist.

These are the 20 most amazing knockouts of 2011.

20. Andy Lee TKO's Craig McEwan in the 10th and Final Round

In a scheduled 10-rounder, Andy Lee displayed the courage and tenacity fans love to see in a boxer. He was losing on the scorecards and was consistently going for the knockout.

Lee kept pressing forward and changed the fight in his favor at the end of Round 9. Lee dropped McEwan, but McEwan got up to finish the round. He just had to survive Round 10 to claim the victory.

But Lee wouldn't let McEwan get away so easily. He smelled blood and finished the fight with a huge left-hand up top.

19. Amir Khan KO's Zab Judah in Round 5

Amir Khan caused as stir with a bodyshot right on the beltline of Zab Judah. The knockout was deemed legal and not a low-blow because Judah's trunks were pulled up too high anyway.

Amazing uppercut to the abs brings down Judah in the fifth round and hopefully encourages him to call it a career.

18. Guillermo Rigondeaux TKO's Willie

Guillermo Rigondeaux is one of the brightest rising stars of the sport of boxing, and he proved it by stopping the previously undefeated junior featherweight standout Willie "Big Bang" Casey.

Rigondeaux dropped him twice in the first round before knocking the dust out of him with a plethora of bodyshots.

17. Lamont Peterson KO's Victor Manuel Cayo in Round 12

Sure Lamont Peterson had this fight won by the scorecards going into Round 12, but he didn't want to beat Cayo on the scorecards. He wanted something bigger, a statement to say he's coming for more.

He's not in it just for the win; he wants a sensational victory, and he got it. The bodyshot barrage he unleashed on Cayo kept hurting. The old saying is that "if you hurt the body, the head will go."

Peterson hurt Cayo to the body and finished him off with a huge right. Cayo complained about it being behind the head, but he was mostly just trying to bide time. It didn't work, and he was counted out.

16. Gary Russell KO's Heriberto Ruiz in Round 1

Gary Russell is a featherweight competitor with too much skill to be ignored for long, but he's not known as a powerful puncher. Well, that changed with this first-round knockout of Ruiz.

15. Adrien Broner KO's Vicente Rodriguez in Round 3

Adrien Broner is an undefeated talent with amazing natural ability that was on full display when he defended well and then turned up the heat on Vicente Rodriguez.

Broner flurried against the ropes in what was a surprisingly careful flurry with well-placed shots that eventually led to the two shots that put Rodriguez down, a right to the body and left hook up top.

The look of defeat in Rodriguez's eyes is almost heartbreaking, but Broner's speed, precision and skill was just too much to handle.

14. Yuriorkis Gamboa TKO's Jorge Solis in Round 4

Yuriorkis Gamboa is a young undefeated featherweight star in big expectations on his back to continue to impress. Against Solis, he did just that.

Solis is a veteran that faced Pacquiao years ago, so he knows talent. That experience still didn't help Solis not hit the canvas five times, including twice in Round 4.

Upon the fifth canvas caress, the referee stopped the fight.

13. Adrien Broner TKO's Jason Litzau in Round 1

Adrien Broner was coming off a highly criticized performance against Daniel Ponce De Leon. It was a rather uneventful unanimous decision victory for Broner. Litzau was coming off an exciting upset.

Broner made sure to impress with this performance. After landing at will throughout the opening round, Broner knocked Litzau against the ropes.

Broner ricocheted Litzau's head between the ropes and his fists in a long flurry before the referee stopped the fight near the end of Round 1. In this performance, his fight against Ponce De Leon is forgotten.

12. Sergio Martinez TKO's Sergiy Dzinziruk in Round 8

Sergio Martinez delivered the knockout of the year last year. He didn't do that this year, but he did deliver a sensational technical knockout of an undefeated Dzinziruk

In Round 8, after knocking Dzinziruk down four times throughout the fight, the referee had seen enough on the fifth knockdown to waive off the fight.

11. Robert Helenius KO's Samuel Peter in Round 9

Robert Helenius is a rising star in the heavyweight division.

Samuel Peter is the only fighter to have lost to both Klitschko brothers, the pinnacle of the division. He's given them three fights, making him a wealth of boxing experience and perhaps test of skill.

Helenius passed the test with flying colors, as he outlasted the tiring Peter and dropped him twice in Round 9. On the second meeting with the canvas, Peter went to sleep and didn't wake for the 10-count.

10. Floyd Mayweather KO's Victor Ortiz in Round 4

Floyd Mayweather delivered the most talked about boxing event in 2011. It showed up everywhere, even in places you wouldn't think boxing would be.

Some may say Mayweather's alleged "cheapshot" was bad for boxing because it showed boxers in a bad light, but I say it's great for boxing. More people were discussing boxing than they have in a long time.

Even people who don't know anything about boxing HAD to discuss it. It was shocking, controversial and dramatic. It may not be knockout-of-the-year material, but it is certainly event of the year.

9. Brandon Rios KO's Urbano Antillon in Round 3

Brandon Rios went to war against Urbano Antillon for the first two rounds. In Round 3, he brought it home.

Rios opened the round with a knockdown, then he fought tooth and nail from a determined-to-survive Antillon for the second mouth-dropping face-first knockdown.

Antillon got up, and the referee let him continue, only to witness Antillon do the wobble dance at the mere sight of Rios, a Mexican lion, running towards him with jaws open and ready to devour.

The ref showed mercifully halted the action before Rios' jaws could close in on his hurt prey.

8. Jorge Arce TKO's Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. in Round 12

In this fight, you don't have the wild knockout that leaves the other person laying lifeless, but you do have a dramatic hard-sought victory in the final round by Arce.

His performance was incredible. Vazquez was beating him bad with his boxing skills at first, but Arce persisted.

He knew if he kept going to the body and kept coming forward, Vazquez would fall before he did. While Vazquez didn't "fall" in the final round, his corner threw in the towel as he was battered against the ropes.

7. Lucian Bute KO's Jean Paul Mendy in Round 4

Blink and you'll miss it!

Canada's favorite adopted son Bute sent undefeated Jean Paul Mendy crashing to the canvas at the end of Round 4 in dramatic fashion with a left so fast, you'll likely hit rewind many times to catch it.

6. Sergio Martinez KO's Darren Barker in Round 11

Sergio Martinez is on the list for a second time in an even more impressive knockout. Darren Barker was not only an undefeated Englishman, but a true middleweight.

Martinez's previous opponent had to move up from junior middleweight to middleweight to fight Martinez. Barker, a full-size middleweight, had good defense that seemed to puzzle Martinez at first.

Martinez didn't quit plugging away to find an answer to Barker's defense. He flurried and stepped back, then flurried some more, throwing showers of hard punches through Barker's guard.

Finally, in Round 11, a hard right to the head landed home around Barker's defense. Barker sat down and didn't get up.

5. Mike Alvarado TKO's Breidis Prescott in Round 10

Prescott was winning the fight for the first five or six rounds until Alvarado finally got on the inside and turned the boxing match into a close-up brawl.

Alvarado's powerful uppercuts became too much for Prescott and put him down in Round 10.

Prescott got up to try to survive the last minute and a half of the fight, but the referee stopped it as he saw Prescott absorbing too many uppercuts as he leaned over onto Alvarado.

That was a great come-from-behind knockout that definitely made Alvarado some fans.

4. Brandon Rios TKO's Miguel Acosta in Round 10

Brandon Rios enters this list for a second time with a sensational finish against Acosta. Acosta put up a great performance that saw him winning the fight by the midway point, but Rios came back.

Rios started putting together combinations and hard punches that would put Acosta down in Round six and then two more times. In Round 10, after a brutal series of rights, Team Acosta threw in the towel.

3. Nonito Donaire KO's Fernando Montiel in Round 2

Nonito Donaire delivered an early-bird candidate for knockout of the year when he sent Montiel to the canvas in February with a booming left counter.

The referee messed up the beauty of this knockout by letting Montiel continue on wobbly legs at the count of 10.

Montiel would succumb to blows practically two seconds after the referee allowed Montiel to continue.

2. James Kirkland TKO's Alfredo Angulo

James Kirkland came in the underdog following his first-round upset to Nobuhiro Ishida, a little-known Japanese fighter.

Alfredo Angulo was supposed to mop the floor with Kirkland in his home country of Mexico, but the "Little Texan that Could" dropped Angulo in the first round after suffering a first-round knockdown himself.

They warred for five more rounds with Kirkland hammering away at Angulo to end the fight in stunning fashion as Angulo lay helpless on the ropes, awaiting the referee to save him in Round 6.

After all the false prophets of boxing saying Kirkland was through following his upset loss, his redemption against Angulo said otherwise.

1. Nobuhiro TKO's James Kirkland in Round 1

James Kirkland was an undefeated prospect set to put the world on fire until a Japanese fighter by the name of Nobuhiro Ishida changed everything in one round.

Ishida has less than 10 knockouts and over 30 fights. Nobody expected Ishida's punch to be able to put Kirkland down three times, but it did.

On the third knockdown, the referee waived off the fight, having seen enough.

The inspiring story of an overlooked Japanese fighter achieving such a great moment in the aftermath of Japan's Tsunami is the stuff that makes great moments.

A great knockout isn't just about spit flying and blood spouting and bodies going limp. A great knockout is about a story that is told with purposeful punches and battered bodies.

Ishida told a story in 2011, writing an award-winning poem with the pen of his fists scribbling words into Kirkland's flesh to be used as the tablet on which this story is written.

Knockout of the year? Hell yeah!