A Vivid Memory From The 1990s: The Chilling Julian Jackson-Herol Graham Knockout

The man who was on the receiving end of what might just have been the most shocking, even disturbing, and just plain nasty knockout of the 1990s was nicknamed “Bomber.” The man who administered the almighty bomb was nicknamed “The Hawk.” On this day back in 1990, Julian Jackson and Herol Graham met in Spain, and the vacant WBC middleweight title was on the line.

Jackson, known as a pure puncher, was nowadays deemed past his best, mainly due to his poor eyesight. Jackson was not permitted to box in the UK, where health and safety laws were much stricter than in Spain, so Graham agreed to travel to try again to win a world title.

Graham was a ludicrously gifted southpaw who was wizard-like in making the other guy miss. Even when he had both hands dangling by his sides, the Sheffield star could dodge a punch, even a combination of punches. Graham was, at one time, almost impossible to hit in the head or jaw. But against Jackson, Graham made one mistake: he got greedy in the fight.

Jackson Fighting Half-Blind, Fully Dangerous

Jackson, a former ruler down at 154 pounds, took a real beating from Graham during the first three rounds of their encounter. Soon, the man from The Virgin Islands was busted up, his eyesight even more compromised now than it had been at the sound of the opening bell. And Graham was within seconds of getting the stoppage win in the fourth. After the three completed rounds, Graham was up on all cards, with one judge scoring the second round 10-8 in Graham’s favour, such was his dominance.

Jackson had been warned by the ringside doctor that he had one round left or else the fight would be stopped, the harsh warning administered during the break between rounds three and four. And then, hurting, frustrated, and essentially blind, Jackson, his back to the ropes, reached back and landed one hell of a shot from, well, from hell.

The Moment Greed Cost Graham Everything

Capitalising on Graham’s utter belief that the stoppage was soon to be his, with Graham getting greedy when all he had to do was stay away. The third man would have halted the one-sided fight in his favour. Jackson landed a thunderous right hand that flew across a sloppy left to the chin from the co-challenger. Graham was out before he hit the floor. It was a genuine, “ooh, ahhh!” moment. Graham lay on his back, his eyes shut, his chest heaving, would not have beaten a count of ‘100.’

To this day, three-and-a-half decades on, this KO is regularly revisited by fans on YouTube. It’s a brutally beautiful reminder of three things about this sport, boxing, that’s so utterly intoxicating. 1: A puncher can never be counted out in any fight, at any stage, no matter what has gone on previously. 2: Boxing is the ultimate “don’t blink” sport. 3: An on top fighter should never, ever let his guard down, even for one split-second, no matter what shape the other guy is in.

How Herol Graham paid the price for allowing his thirst for the knockout to get the better of him when he went to war with a man some historians say ranks as the greatest one-punch KO artist who ever lived.