Five best KOs of 2025 include face plant stoppage that shocked Jake Paul and Fabio Wardley stunner

Boxing fans have been treated to their fair share of brutal knockouts in 2025.

Jai Opeatai kicked off the year with a bang by flattening David Nyika on January 8, and from there, the finishes came thick and fast.

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talkSPORT.com’s list of the best stoppages from the last 12 months has been narrowed down to five, but we could have easily extended it to 20 (more on that in the honourable mentions).

And so, as the curtain closes on another great year for boxing, we bring you non-stop knockout action from the year just gone.

5. Fabio Wardley vs Justis Huni – June 7, 2025

While some of the entries on this list are far more brutal than Fabio Wardley’s one-punch knockout victory over Justis Huni, few are more dramatic.

Trailing on the scorecards, having been thoroughly outboxed for the entire fight, Wardley plucked out a right hand from the Gods in the tenth round to turn the fight on its head.

Subsequent videos emerged online of Wardley drilling the exact shot with his trainer, Ben Davison, moments before he walked out, and it paid dividends under the bright lights.

4. Jai Opetaia KO8 Huseyin Cinkara – December 6, 2025

Opetaia spent a frustrating 2025 knocking over mandatory and voluntary challengers while chasing ever-elusive unification fights with the other champions in the cruiserweight division.

His third victim of the year was Huseyin Cinkara, who rocked Opetaia early before he was sent tumbling into the ropes by a perfectly-timed backhand.

Cinkara suffered a small brain bleed and a fractured C1 vertebra as a result of the punch, but has thankfully made a full recovery.

3. Pedro Da Silva Conceicao KO2 Renny Viamonte – August 22, 2025

A fight between lesser-known super lightweights Pedro Da Silva Conceicao and Renny Viamonte didn’t jump out on paper when it was announced for a Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) card in Orlando in August.

However, the subsequent knockout went viral, with MVP founder Jake Paul left gobsmacked at ringside.

Conceicao detonated a dynamite right hand in the second round that sent Viamonte plummeting to the canvas face-first, where he lay motionless for several minutes as medics tended to him.

2. Ramazan Muslimov KO7 Michal Soczynski – November 11, 2025

British boxing fans will remember Michal Soczynski as the man who defeated Aloys Junior in his professional debut.

While Soczynski has racked up a fair few vicious knockouts during a bright start to life in the paid ranks, he was on the receiving end of one against Ramazan Muslimov courtesy of a crisp one-two.

Soczynski’s head bounced off the canvas on his way down, and he was later placed in a medically induced coma.

Thankfully, he woke up a few days later and recently welcomed a son into the world.

1. Brian Norman Jr KO5 Jin Sasaki – June 19, 2025

Video at the top of the article…

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Brian Norman Jr closed the year by dropping his WBO welterweight title to Devin Haney, but his knockout victory over Jin Sasaki generated far more social media impressions.

While battling the Japanese fighter on enemy territory, Norman Jr uncorked a hellacious left hook that nailed Sasaki to the canvas.

The shot was so powerful that it wiped Sasaki’s memory for six weeks.

Honourable mentions: Jai Opetaia vs David Nyika, Ben Whittaker vs Benjamin Gavazi, Dave Allen vs Johnny Fisher, Frank Martin vs Rances Barthelemy, Piotr Lacz vs Marko Milun, Oleksandr Usyk vs Daniel Dubois, and Callum Walsh vs Dean Sutherland.