LaMar Clark

LaMar F. Clark (December 1, 1934 – November 5, 2006) was an American professional boxer who fought in the heavyweight division. He was active from 1958 to 1961 and fought a recorded 46 times in his 3 year-career, most of which in his home state of Utah. Clark has the current record of most consecutive knockouts at 44 (including unsanctioned bouts).[1][2] It is still however unclear how the officials of the Utah State Boxing Commission sanctioned most of his bouts versus inexperienced debutants being aware of his knockout-winning streak without ever questioning the level of opposition.

The Guinness Book of World Records credits Clark not only with the most consecutive 44 KOs record, set at Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 11, 1960, but also with the world record for most knockouts at one night for he reportedly knocked out 6 opponents in one night (5 in the first round) at Bingham Canyon, Utah, on December 1, 1958.[3] This helped to put his name not only to the Guinness Book, but in the sports history books as well (cf. Boxing Legends: Greatest Boxers, Toughest Fights, Classic Rivalries)[4] without any asterisk to his achievements, which are questionable to say the least, with his sensational record-breaking six-at-a-time fight night main event with a seven-seconds knockout that was reportedly held at the place, which was underpopulated at that time,[5] and soon became a ghost town.[6]

An uneducated glance at the Clark's official career record statistics (43–3, 42 KOs, 28 of which were scored in the 1st round) could create an illusionary impression of Clark being one of the greatest knockout artists of all time, one of the all-time boxing greats pound-for-pound for sure (and it actually did, with his bout versus Tony Burton in Palm Springs was refereed by legendary Jack Dempsey himself.) However, a more careful look at his record breakdown tells that over 90% of his fights were against limited-to-none opposition. His few match-ups against considerable level opponents ended with Clark being knocked out by world-class contenders. His entire career might have gone completely differently had his manager been less careful in selecting opponents for him.[7]