Another highlight from one of the best punchers in boxing history.
There are a few fighters whom I’ve already featured multiple times on this Sunday Punch series. I’ve waited a bit too long to give Julian Jackson his second appearance.
“The Hawk” was one of the greatest punchers in boxing history. Most of his knockouts were of the “you’re not getting up and probably need to be speedily taken to the ER unit” variety. Last time he was on this series I highlighted his brutal destruction of Herol Graham, but the fight before that one was vicious in a different way.
On June 16th, 1990 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Jackson took a tune-up fight against Wayne Powell on the undercard of Mike Tyson vs. Henry Tillman. The fight was at a 162 lbs catchweight as Julian prepped for a permanent move up to middleweight. Midway through round four, Jackson unleashed a crunching right hand that had Powell down and looking like this mid-count:
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The count was not completed.
Watch the video at the top of the page.
Jackson won the vacant WBC middleweight title away from Herol Graham as mentioned earlier, but Gerald McLellan proved too much for Jackson and he knocked him out twice. After winning the vacant belt again in 1995, Jackson was stopped by Quincy Taylor and that ended his time as a relevant fighter. Jackson called it a career in 1998 with a record of 55-6 (49 KOs), and he was just inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame two years ago. As for Powell (34-9-2, 24 KOs), he also stopped fighting in 1998 and was knocked out in all of his losses, including against Bernard Hopkins.