Last Thursday in Tokyo, Kenshiro Teraji extended the streak.

No, not his winning streak (now at seven) or his title defense streak (now at six).

By stopping Seigo Yuri Akui at the 1:31 mark of the 12th round in a flyweight alphabet unification fight, Teraji made it four years in a row in which a boxer scored a knockout in the last scheduled round of a title fight while trailing on points. It happened in 2022, 2023, 2024 and now 2025.

It’s a particularly bizarre and remarkable streak when you consider it had happened once, total, from the dawn of sanctioned gloved combat through 1973. Then, from 1974-1999, across a quarter-century, it happened six times. And from 2000-2021, it continued at a similar pace, occurring five times.

But now it’s happened in four consecutive calendar years – four times in 37 months, in fact.

International Boxing Hall of Fame broadcaster and writer Steve Farhood keeps a running list of all the times in boxing history in which a fighter has scored last-round, come-from-behind KOs in title bouts – and the sport has kept him busy updating that list the last few years. 

When he first started covering boxing in the late ’70s, the tally was at two. When he was inducted into the IBHOF in 2017, it was at 10. Suddenly now, the list is 16 fights long.

There are logical reasons why the pace has picked up over the years, the obvious one being that there used to be fewer divisions and fewer so-called “world titles” in each division. And with belts now available on every street corner, that naturally means a greater quantity of vulnerable fighters finding their way into title opportunities.

And on top of that, in the oldest of old days, fights could be scheduled for more than 12 or 15 rounds – or sometimes even had unlimited rounds – not to mention that, scores frequently were not made public if a fight ended in a KO, so there was no proof that the victorious fighter had been trailing.

In any case, here are all 16 times these final-round heroics have happened, listed chronologically, with a superlative award handed out for each instance:

Jake LaMotta KO15 Laurent Dauthuille

Retains world middleweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:47
Date: September 13, 1950
Scoring at time of knockout: 72-68, 74-66 and 71-69 Dauthuille
Superlative: “Most Cinematic.” 

I also could have gone with “Best Possum Playing,” but since this is the only last-round come-from-behind KO to be immortalized as part of an Oscar-winning performance, we’ll lean into the cinematic beauty and drama of it. 

LaMotta had spent nearly a decade in pursuit of a shot at the middleweight title, and he famously had to take a dive in order to finally get that shot. In only his second defense, against French underdog Dauthuille, “The Bronx Bull” was three minutes from a stunning end to his reign. By sagging on the ropes and stumbling about as if spent, he lured in a Dauthuille who should have been playing it safe. LaMotta unleashed a furious attack, finally deposited Dauthuille along the ropes and escaped with his title – at least until Sugar Ray Robinson got a hold of him five months later.

Oscar Albarado KO15 Koichi Wajima

Wins WBA junior middleweight title
Time of stoppage: 1:57
Date: June 4, 1974
Scoring at time of knockout: 67-65 Wajima (twice), 67-66 Albarado
Superlative: “Hardest to Watch.” 

Wajima entered the 15th round with a lead but with his left eye swollen just about shut from below, his right eye swollen just about shut from above, and blood coming from both his nose and ear. His corner probably should have kept him on the stool after the 14th, a la Eddie Futch in Manila, but they sent him out and let him take three brutal knockdowns before finally referee Yusaku Yoshida stopped the carnage. Impressively, Wajima recovered from the beating to regain his belt by 15-round unanimous decision over “Shotgun” Albarado seven months later.

Mike Weaver KO15 John Tate

Wins WBA heavyweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:15
Date: March 31, 1980
Scoring at time of knockout: 138-133, 137-134 and 136-133 Tate
Superlative: “Most Out of Nowhere.” 

This one ended entirely without warning, forcing blow-by-blow man Keith Jackson to do a Jim Ross impression long before most people knew who Jim Ross was. The undefeated Tate was 45 seconds from success in his first defense of the strap he’d won from Gerrie Coetzee, 45 seconds from a probable life-changing payday to unify against Larry Holmes. But one left hook from Weaver flipped off the light switch and set the tone for the “lost heavyweights” era of the ’80s.

Jeff Harding KO12 Dennis Andries

Wins WBC light heavyweight title
Time of stoppage: 1:23
Date: June 24, 1989
Scoring at time of knockout: 104-103, 106-103 and 107-105 Andries
Superlative: “Worst Corner Advice.” 

Andries’ first defense of his light heavyweight belt came against late sub “Hitman” Harding of Australia, who took the fight on three weeks’ notice. After round 10, the great Emanuel Steward gave Andries some not-so-great advice, telling him, “You have to knock this man out,” even though all three official judges had Andries ahead. Harding hurt Andries in the 11th, then floored him twice in the 12th and soon convinced ref Joe Cortez to intervene. 

In the post-fight interview, Andries asked ABC’s Alex Wallau what the scorecards said, and when told he was ahead on all three, replied, “You’re kidding. I was told I was behind” – and said he would have fought differently down the stretch if he’d known he was up. Andries did manage to gain redemption in the rematch by seventh-round KO, but Harding won a majority decision in the rubber match to cap an underappreciated trilogy.

Julio Cesar Chavez KO12 Meldrick Taylor

Retains WBC junior welterweight title, wins IBF junior welterweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:58
Date: March 17, 1990
Scoring at time of knockout: 107-102 and 108-101 Taylor, 105-104 Chavez
Superlative: “Most Controversial Stoppage.” 

There’s little need to rehash the details of this one, as it’s the most famous fight on this list, with the possible exception of LaMotta-Dauthuille. Chavez dropped Taylor with 17 seconds left on the clock, Taylor pulled himself up, and ref Richard Steele looked into Taylor’s eyes and deemed him unable to continue with two seconds to go. It remains, 35 years later, the most hotly debated, passionately disputed call any boxing referee has ever made.

Humberto “Chiquita” Gonzalez KO12 Kwang Sun Kim

Retains WBC junior flyweight title
Time of stoppage: 0:55
Date: June 7, 1992
Scoring at time of knockout: 105-103 (twice) and 104-103 Kim
Superlative: “Best Result for Boxing Fans, In Retrospect.” 

Kim, who had just five prior pro fights, appeared on his way to a major upset until Gonzalez knocked him down with 15 seconds left in the 11th. Round 12 set up as a race against the clock – except it wasn’t much of a race. 

Chiquita quickly produced another knockdown, then forced the stoppage a few punches later. And we couldn’t have known it at the time, but for the good of the sport, the right guy won. Who knows if we get the 1993 classic between Gonzalez and Michael Carbajal if Kim hangs on for one more round?

Paul Vaden KO12 Vincent Pettway

Wins IBF junior middleweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:33
Date: August 12, 1995
Scoring at time of knockout: 105-104 Pettway (thrice)
Superlative: “Most Disputed Scoring.” 

Officially, Pettway was ahead and Vaden needed at least a knockdown in the final round to take his title. But the Showtime broadcasters all believed entering the 12th that Pettway – battered, bleeding and fading – needed to knock Vaden out to retain his strap. 

A standard 10-9 final round would have left us with a major scoring controversy as the title would have stayed with Pettway. And with Pettway remaining on his feet all round, that’s where it was headed. But he was taking punishment, having his head snapped back repeatedly, and a sizzling left uppercut convinced that magnet for difficult stoppage decisions, Richard Steele, to step in with 27 ticks left on the clock.

Dingaan Thobela KO12 Glenn Catley
Wins WBC super middleweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:53
Date: September 1, 2000
Scoring at time of knockout: 108-100 and 105-103 Catley, 104-104
Superlative: “Most Fluky Outcome.” 

Thobela winning this fight makes little sense. The former lightweight titlist had eaten himself into becoming a pudgy super middleweight, and following his upset of British beltholder Catley – who was making his first defense of the belt he’d claimed via his own upset 12th-round KO of Markus Beyer – Thobela proceeded to go 0-7 the rest of his professional career. That’s right: He fought seven more times and never scored another victory. 

In the 12th round of this one, Catley was needlessly aggressive and wild, opening the door for the South African, who scored two knockdowns in the final minute to prompt a warranted halt by referee Eddie Cotton. 

Shannon Briggs KO12 Siarhei Liakhovich

Wins WBO heavyweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:59
Date: November 4, 2006
Scoring at time of knockout: 106-103 (twice) and 105-104 Liakhovich
Superlative: “Largest Gap Between Quality of Fight and Quality of Finish.” 

Obviously, we could also have awarded this one “Least Time Left on Clock,” as there was just one second remaining when ref Robert Ferrara waved it off, but what stands out more about this fight was how utterly dreadful the action was right up until the unforgettable ending. Despite not doing a whole hell of a lot for 11 rounds, Liakhovich and Briggs were both exhausted in the 12th – and Briggs had the late power to capitalize. 

Liakhovich got up from the first knockdown, but he fell out of the ring on the second knockdown, landed on the timekeeper’s table and was sitting there with his legs between the table and the ring apron, too sapped of energy to move, he and Briggs collectively reminding boxing fans that there was at least one too many heavyweight alphabet belts floating around in 2006.

Carl Froch KO12 Jermain Taylor

Retains WBC super middleweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:46
Date: April 25, 2009
Scoring at time of knockout: 106-102 Taylor (twice), 106-102 Froch
Superlative: “Second Saddest Late Collapse by a Taylor.” 

Meldrick, of course, still tops that list for what befell him 19 years earlier, but Jermain was mere seconds away from a victory over a future Hall of Famer when it slipped through his fingers. Froch battered Taylor throughout a thrilling final round and finally sent him to the canvas with 44 seconds to go. 

The former middleweight champ got up, and he couldn’t have known it for sure, but if he’d just taken one more knee to buy time, he would have won a decision. Instead, Froch pinned him along the ropes and had him out on his feet, forcing ref Michael Ortega’s intervention. Taylor’s time as a serious player in boxing ended in his next fight when, as part of the Super Six tournament, he suffered another KO12 defeat, this one against Arthur Abraham.

DeeJay Kriel KO12 Carlos Licona

Wins IBF strawweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:16
Date: February 16, 2019
Scoring at time of knockout: 108-101 Licona (twice), 105-104 Kriel
Superlative: “Least Famous Final-Round Come-From-Behind KO.” 

This fight on a Leo Santa Cruz undercard at the Microsoft Theater in L.A. went under the radar when it happened and remains there now; you can’t even find a clip of it on YouTube. 

Hopelessly behind on two of the three cards, South Africa’s Kriel emptied the clip to score three knockdowns in quick succession, erasing the deficit when ref Wayne Hedgpeth decided he’d seen enough. Kriel did not make a single successful defense of his belt, enduring a long stretch of inactivity during COVID, only to lose by stoppage to Felix Alvarado nearly two years after claiming his strap.

Elwin Soto KO12 Angel Acosta

Wins WBO junior flyweight title
Time of stoppage: 0:23
Date: June 21, 2019
Scoring at time of knockout: 107-101, 106-102 and 105-103 Acosta
Superlative: “Worst Stoppage.” 

Not to take anything away from Soto, who had scored a heavy knockdown in the third round and was in the fight all the way, but Thomas Taylor – typically a first-rate referee – took this title from Acosta as much as Soto did. 

About 15 seconds into the final round, Acosta had Soto pinned to the ropes and was teeing off when a sudden counter left hook froze the defending beltholder. Soto pounced, Acosta may or may not have been capable of defending himself, and Taylor almost immediately deprived him of the opportunity to find out.

Leigh Wood KO12 Michael Conlan

Retains WBA “regular” featherweight title
Time of stoppage: 1:25
Date: March 12, 2022
Scoring at time of knockout: 104-103 (twice) and 105-102 Conlan
Superlative: “Most Spectacular Knockout.” 

Wood kicked off the four-year streak of last-round heroics with the 2022 Knockout of the Year (in what some considered the 2022 Fight of the Year), ejecting an unconscious Conlan from the ring to put an exclamation point on what otherwise could have been a controversial decision. 

In the closing seconds of round 11, Conlan went down on a semi-slip that was ruled a knockdown, reducing his lead to a single point. But nearing the midway point of the 12th, Wood took it out of the judges’ hands and let ref Steve Gray off the hook with the right hand that short-circuited Conlan and the follow-up combo that dumped him on the arena floor.

O’Shaquie Foster KO12 Eduardo “Rocky” Hernandez

Retains WBC junior lightweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:38
Date: October 28, 2023
Scoring at time of knockout: 107-102 and 110-99 Hernandez, 106-103 Foster
Superlative: “Most All-Over-The-Place Scores.” 

Fresh off an insane 11th round – the 2023 Round of the Year and maybe the wildest three minutes seen in the sport since Round 9 of Ward-Gatti I – the stage was set for a dramatic 12th in Foster’s first title defense. Foster didn’t know he needed a knockout, but he pushed hard enough to get it against the fading challenger Hernandez, scoring two knockdowns and a slightly questionable stoppage with Rocky on his feet. 

But the halt called by ref Hector Afu was far less controversial than a decision would have been, as Foster would have lost a split decision even if he’d won the 12th round 10-7, which would have been an all-out robbery. It should have been close enough for either man to win with a decisive 12th. It very much was not close enough on Nicolas Hidalgo’s indefensible 110-99 shutout card. 

Raymond Ford KO12 Otabek Kholmatov

Wins vacant WBA featherweight title
Time of stoppage: 2:53
Date: March 2, 2024
Scoring at time of knockout: 106-103 Kholmatov (twice), 105-104 Ford
Superlative: “Most Brought-That-Dog-Out Finish.” 

In what some (this writer included) considered the 2024 Fight of the Year, Ford and Kholmatov battled back and forth on nearly even terms, but they came into the final round with different goals. Kholmatov, gutting it out despite tearing his ACL early in the bout, just wanted to make it to the final bell. 

Ford wanted something more emphatic and got it when he sent Kholmatov careening into the ropes with just seven seconds left, convincing referee Charlie Fitch to stop it. “My coach told me to bring that dog out,” Ford said in the ring afterward. His coach did the barking, and Ford, furiously aggressive the entire final stanza, did the biting.

Kenshiro Teraji KO12 Seigo Yuri Akui

Retains WBC flyweight title, wins WBA flyweight title
Time of stoppage: 1:31
Date: March 13, 2025
Scoring at time of knockout: 105-104 Akui (twice), 106-103 Teraji
Superlative: “Most Instantly Emotion-Inducing Defeat.” 

It’s tempting to call this the “Most Anticlimactic Stoppage,” since referee Katsuhiro Nakamura’s intervention seemed a bit early and Teraji was barely behind, needing only a knockdown, not a knockout, to win. But since we already called Soto-Acosta the “Worst Stoppage,” well, let’s focus elsewhere: on the heartbroken Akui’s reaction. 

“The Amazing Boy” did his part with a final-round rally, but just as memorable was the sight of Akui sobbing on the canvas – so close to a career-altering victory, only to be reminded, like 15 others before him, of how long the last three minutes of a title fight can be.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of CasinoReports and the author of 2014’s The Moneymaker Effect. He can be reached on X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn, or via email at RaskinBoxing@yahoo.com.