EDIT: My bad I can't change the title but Odor did not knock out Bautista, he just punched him in the face.

With Jon Bois' new series "A History of Charging the Mound" I have been watching a ton of mound charging videos, brawls and fights – and I believe Rougned Odor punching Jose Bautista in the face is the best punch thrown in baseball history.

Odor strikes Jose cleanly in the face, avoiding both helmet and face protector. He winds up and delivers a perfect strike, sending Jose's glasses and helmet flying. He aims and strikes true.

Most of the epic fights across baseball history are bench clearing brawls where there is a lot of wrestling, tackling, and wild punches being thrown. J Ram and Tim Anderson- wild swinging. Nolan v Ventura – like a bar room brawl, Ryan lands a ton of punches but all close range with Robin in a head lock. I think Odor's punch is the best delivered and landed. Thoughts?

46 comments

  5. That we have video of, maybe. I bet there were some awesome punches from like the 1890s that are forgotten to history.

  6. “DOWN GOES ANDERSON” will always live rent free in my head. I think the incredible calling of it is the difference.

  7. He didnt KO him, but it was probably the cleanest punch in MLB history. Jose Ramirez got in a pretty good one against Tim Anderson too

  11. My favorite thing about this fight was good guy Beltre getting Jose outta there before he got rocked a second time

  12. You can make an argument that Joey bats wasn’t fully ready even if that’s literally a picture perfect knock out punch. Tim Anderson actively squared up Jose Ramirez and got slept, that’s worse, on top of it basically ending his career

  13. I don’t know about best punch, but best baseball fight commentary goes to Tom Hamilton’s impeccable play by play call of Tim Anderson’s knockout. Dude pivoted to a boxing call seamlessly.

  15. up there with the pedro martinez toss of don zimmer as the greatest MLB extracurricular highlight of all

  17. José Ramírez decking Tim Anderson. Anderson’s career went down the shitter after that fight, and he seemed to be very unpopular around the league. J-Ram punched the talent out of him 😂😂😂

  18. I could be wrong but I feel like it’s a long time since there has been real fight with fists flying. It’s just been shoving matches for a while.

  19. If landing a punch that clean and doing no appreciable damage with it feels like a win, I would re-examine your thoughts on what punches are for.

  24. How is this a “knockout “ in your eyes. When Bautista literally stayed on his feet and started to fight back immediately? You’re weak guy. You’re obviously a Rangers fan with not much to cheer for. This obviously wasn’t a knockout or any where close. It was a soft punch that Bautista wore like a champ. It only looks bad because the shades went flying. That was literally week like if your 10 year old brother hit you when he’s mad.

  25. Bautista wasn’t knocked out here, he actually took the punch pretty well considering how flush it was.

    But yeah, that Odor punch is probably the best one, lol. Can’t really think of too many others besides the J-Ram and Anderson fight, but that one didn’t look as good.

  27. Not a punch but Pedro throwing Don Zimmer in the ’03 ALCS has to be up there with best wrestling moves in sports right?

    (Also, ALCS/NLCS 2003 + ALCS 2004 is probably the best stretch of playoff baseball I’ll ever watch in my lifetime).

  28. Seems like the consensus so I won’t pile on bc Anderson v Ramirez is an all time call but Anderson’s glass jaw v a wild punch that didn’t FULLY connect gave those results.

    If Ramirez connected with the same power and accuracy as Odor’s punch on Bautista, he may well have knocked Anderson’s jaw right off his face. And I don’t have a horse in this race but I would have paid PPV prices to see that hypothetical scenario

  29. Varitek, in full protective gear, mushing his glove in ARod’s face has to be the softest baseball “punch” ever.

  30. The follow up glove slap is pretty good, too.

    Although it must be said that as gentlemen, one prefers to lead with the glove slap and then escalate to a closed fist.

  31. The entire Miami Marlins v. Nyjer Morgan is pretty great. Definitely one of the best clotheslines. 

  32. As a rangers fan we have 2/3 of the cleanest punches in the modern era (Nolan and Odor) but J Ram’s was probably the best one

  36. I’ll always be partial to Kyle Farnsworth pile-driving Paul Wilson and pummeling him on the ground

  37. The thing of it is I don’t think JB thought there would be a punch / just a lot of fronting and shoving until they got separated. RO didn’t think that. 

  39. Didn’t knock him out .!!! Surprisingly no .. Bautista took it like a champ . Better to be punched in July than knocked out in September

  40. Dumb question, it’s j-ram on Tim Anderson all day, they actually squared up. Odor was a sucker punch

  43. The best punch thrown in baseball history was thrown by Ray Knight(prior amateur golden glove boxer) when he hit in Eric Davis. That punch made Mike Tyson want to meet him.

  45. He didn’t just punch Bautista, he delivered one of the cleanest, tightest, most technically perfect punches ever thrown in a baseball game. His stance was locked in, feet planted, hips loaded, and he reacted instantly with a short, very tight right cross that had zero windup. The mechanics were legit boxing level.

    Disgusting precision too, he landed it right on the jaw at the exact spot to send his head into a full cinematic rotation.

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