Sunday Punch: Roy Jones Jr’s KO of the Year vs. Virgil Hill

This is the only body shot to ever win Ring Magazine’s KO of the Year award.

An overwhelming majority of the most memorable and brutal knockouts in boxing history are head shots, but there are certain body shot KOs that would make you wish you were unconscious instead of rolling around in agony on the canvas.

April 25th, 1998 at Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. Roy Jones Jr had just come off avenging his DQ loss to Montell Griffin by wrecking him inside of one round. Virgil Hill had been defeated by Dariusz Michalczewski and thus lost his WBA and IBF light heavyweight titles.

Jones was the WBC champion at the time of this bout, but there was no title at stake that evening, because the WBC declared him as “champion in recess,” presumably for several months of inactivity.

In round four, the man who was considered by many to be the #1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world, a vicious right hand to the body sent Hill down in an instant. The pain was noticeable, the sound of the punch was loud, and the fight was over, with Virgil suffering a broken rib as a result of that crushing shot.

Watch the video at the top of the page.

Jones Jr finally retired in 2017 with a record of 66-9 (47 KOs), and despite his sad decline from 2004 onward he’ll forever be known as an all-time great. Hill hung up the gloves for good in 2015, sporting a record of 51-7 (24 KOs). The Jones fight was the only true knockout loss of his career. (He was stopped by Jean Marc-Mormeck on cuts in the 2000s)