Gervonta Davis Or Alexander Povetkin KO Of Year?

As we close out 2020, there’s not much debate on what the actual punch of the year in boxing was. That’s the left uppercut. And two championship-caliber fighters both landed it to immediately end their separate bouts. Further, it’s causing a debate about which one should be the KO of the Year?

Gervonta Davis’ devastating sixth-round left uppercut against Leo Santa Cruz Halloween night in San Antonio, TX, is definitely is at the forefront for the top punch of the past 52 weeks.

However, so too is that same left uppercut that Russian Alexander Povetkin landed in the fifth round to end things in his August Heavyweight contender bout with England’s Dillian Whyte.

In both cases, the opponent was out cold and that increases the debate about which one wins our BFW honor?

We discussed this on the latest edition of the Big Fight Weekend podcast with senior writer Marquis Johns from the site as well as our guest Dan Canobbio of the “Inside Boxing Live” program seen a weekly on Pluto TV.

Check out the video version of our podcast and the discussion of “Knockout of the Year.”

For Davis, it has only added to his resume’ and it means that in 2021 he will be a pay-per-view top draw for Premier Boxing Champions.  That’s in no small part to the spectacular one-punch knockout of the veteran Santa Cruz.

And, it could be looming that Davis gets a mega fight upcoming with Undisputed Lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez. Or, he potentially also could fight either Ryan Garcia or Luke Campbell, whichever one wins their Lightweight title eliminator showdown next weekend?

As for Povetkin, the former WBA heavyweight champion come up immediately catapulted himself back into the title picture with that devastating punch against the former WBC top contender Whyte. Those two were supposed to have rematch in January, but Povetkin is still dealing with the effects of Covid-19 (he’s reportedly been hospitalized twice in the last two months) and the fight has been further delayed.

But, while the rematch and the outcome for Povetkin-Whyte may be uncertain, there is no dispute that the Russian laid out the loudmouth Brit with a single shot.

And, as we discussed on our roundtable, the real question is was Povetkin’s lefty bomb better than Davis’s huge punch in Texas?