Sunday Punch: Simon Brown gets KO’d, keeps punching

...When you’re so knocked out that you keep punching while on your back.

We’re fast approaching the 25-year anniversary of a truly memorable boxing knockout, and one that looked unlikely on paper.

Simon Brown was once one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. The Jamaican, known as “Mantaquilla” by his legendary trainer Pepe Correa, held major titles at welterweight (147 lbs) and super-welterweight (154 lbs), and had beaten the likes of Tyrone Trice (twice), Terry Norris, and Maurice Blocker over the course of his career.

Having lost the rematch to Norris and thus his WBC super-welterweight belt, Brown won a couple of “get well” fights and launched back into a title bout with IBF champ Vincent Pettway on April 29th, 1995.

This was a crazy, back-and-forth bout that saw both men dropped entering round six. Then the shocking outcome materialized, as Pettway walloped Brown with a perfect left hook that not only put him on his back, but sent him crashing down so hard that Brown kept throwing punches up at the air while unconscious.

Watch the video below.

In 1995, Simon Brown was knocked out so viciously by Vincent Pettway that he kept throwing punches while unconscious on his back!!! #boxing #history #knockout pic.twitter.com/LaKbXjH9Yc

— Boxing History (@BoxingHistory) October 21, 2017

You know you’re knocked out when you’re punching invisible people as if you’re upright.

That was the first KO loss of Brown’s career, and it was effectively the end of his championship window. He did go up to middleweight to take on Bernard Hopkins in 1998, but he was TKO’d and he hung up the gloves after six straight losses. He finished with a record of 47-12 (34 KOs) and retired in 2000.

As for Pettway, this was the peak of his time in the ring. He lost his title by TKO to Paul Vaden, got stopped by Terry Norris after that, and never had another relevant fight again. He retired in 2001 with a record of 43-7-1 (32 KOs), and a knockout worthy of being featured on this week’s Sunday Punch.