GIF: Was Lemieux’s knockout of Stevens the KO of the Year?

David Lemieux is one of boxing’s hardest punchers, and the Quebec middleweight showed that off again this past Saturday night, when he faced Curtis Stevens in an HBO main event from Verona, New York.

Lemieux (37-3, 33 KO) knocked out fellow slugger Stevens (29-6, 21 KO) in the third round on the sort of left hook fighters dream about landing. Short, compact, perfectly timed, and with full power. Stevens, who can take a punch (and had, by that point in the fight), was out as soon as it landed.

If you missed it, or just want to relive it, let’s take some more looks at the knockout.

Here’s how it looked in real time on the broadcast, live:

This is a blink-and-you-missed-it way to view the KO. You see the result of the devastation, but the left hook is so short and quick that you really can’t see it landing from this angle.

Here’s a real time version from above:

This is better, but you still don’t get the full view of the shot. It’s just so fast, and such a compact blow.

Here are some slow motion angles:

With the benefit of slow motion, you see the impact in every angle. It’s a brutally hard punch, one that shows off the power of Lemieux, as well as the great timing with which he landed this particular punch.

Was this your Knockout of the Year thus far? We’ve had a handful of pretty spectacular knockouts already in 2017, but is this the new clubhouse leader?