10 unbelievably creative moments in MMA

Presence of mind is a quality that not many fighters possess in their repertoire, yet despite that, it is something that has often turned the tides in the course of MMA fights.

From cartwheel knockouts to sacred capoeira rituals, there is no "definitive" key to landing successful attacks, as improvisation is the name of the game.

Having said that, here are 10 unbelievably creative moments in mixed martial arts.

#1 The Walls of Jericho (The Boston Crab)

Jonno Mears did something that was previously unheard of in the sport of mixed martial arts.

He effectively borrowed Chris Jericho’s “Walls of Jericho” submission move and executed it so well that he earned a victory! The English middleweight defeated Aaron Jones after climbing atop his back and grabbing both legs in a typically Jericho-esque way before flashing a double thumbs up to the camera!

Jones tapped out almost instantly and Jonno proceeded to do a Conor McGregor reminiscent celebration. Even Chris Jericho mentioned this feat on his Twitter handle.

#2 Demetrious Johnson’s suplex-armbar transition

Sheer technicality at work, courtesy Mighty Mouse

At UFC 216, Demetrious Johnson pulled off a miraculous finale to his tug-of-war battle against Ray Borg. The former wrestler who is known for effective submission manoeuvres, did quite the unthinkable, eliciting a thunderous roar from those in attendance.

In the middle of round 5, Johnson hoisted Borg up for a suplex and in a surprising twist of events, transitioned it into an armbar while Borg was still in the air. The sheer technical genius of that move won that fight a “performance of the night” award.

#3 Jose Aldo’s superman punch off the cage

The ammo never runs out of Jose Aldo's arsenal

The featherweights Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar bumped fists in the main event of UFC 156 in what turned out to be a fairly interesting competition.

Aldo dominated much of the fights landing clean strikes and Edgar didn’t seem to back off, as he kept assiduously charging forward.

The highlight of the bout was when Aldo decided to take a step back and employed his ingenuity in a very novel way. Jose Aldo sprang off the cage and decided to shock Edgar with a superman punch which he landed successfully.

#4 Anthony Pettis’s insane head kick off the cage

This was straight off a video-game clipping! For anyone who loves over the top fighting masquerading as a mixed martial arts bout, my bet is to check out the match-up between Anthony Pettis and Ben Henderson.

This was at a time when WEC fighters were getting absorbed by the UFC. Anthony Pettis proved why he was first in the line to get the big-shot opportunity. In the last round of the fight, Pettis ran up the side of the cage and unleashed a brutal head-kick on the unsuspecting Ben Henderson much to the amazement of the commentators. He became an instant legend!

#5 Marcus Aurelio’s cartwheel dance kick

A proud proponent of the capoeira heritage

The match between Marcus Aurelio and Keegan Marshall began more as a capoeira ritual than a mixed martial arts bout, with the former determined to dance his way out. Keegan tried to retaliate Marcus’s onslaught by going forth with a few punches, which in no way connected successfully.

After 15 seconds of the fight, Aurelio began a sequence of capoeira moves and landed a brutal kick to the head of Marshall, who was knocked out almost instantly! A kick being initiated with two cartwheels and a brutal follow-up tornado kick was a moment of genius.

#6 Mark Hunt’s atomic butt drop

At Pride Shockwave 2004, Wanderlei Silva was supposed to take on Kazushi Sakuraba but at the very last moment Sakuraba pulled out. This forced Mark Hunt to take up the fight on three days’ notice. Hunt being the powerhouse, managed to evade most submission attempts by Silva.

Somewhere during the course of the match-up, while Silva was down, Hunt came up with a noble idea: to jump on his opponent; so he did. In a surprising turn of events, Mark Hunt landed the atomic butt drop on a lying Wanderlei Silva which wasn’t that ineffective!

#7 Brian Ebersole’s cartwheel kick KO

He pulled-off a miracle with the move — He pulled off a miracle with the move

Shannon Forrester is notorious for having the shortest mixed martial arts career, having just fought one bout (and lost)! It could have been a lot better for him, had he not bumped fists with Brian Ebersole on a fateful day in March 2009.

Forrester looked like a promising debutant but the person he was squaring-off against looked like an ‘A-grade’ ruthless competitor. The fight ended when Ebersole executed a brilliant cartwheel kick (the kind of cartwheel we did for fun, back in the day of yore) that landed square on Forrester’s nose, instantly knocking him out!

#8 Anderson Silva’s elbow knockout

Known and revered as an archetypal character inside the demonic octagon structure, Anderson Silva does like to play around every now and then. Usually seen prancing around like Muhammad Ali, the Brazilian wizard came up with some reflex-action wizardry in his match against Tony Fryklund.

After avoiding and successfully countering most of Tony’s attacks and launching knee strikes, Silva decided that he had had enough of playing around. He then proceeded to land a clean reverse-elbow strike which knocked Fryklund out. Silva cited Ong Bak for the influence!

#9 Olivier Fontaine’s armbar after getting caught

This was a moment that elicited a unanimous “hell yeah” from every mixed martial arts aficionado. Even though the fight between Olivier Fontaine and Sofiane Benchohra was short, the finale made up for it, in a big way.

As Fontaine attempted a roundhouse kick, it was caught by Benchohra. Fontaine was left hobbling on one leg until he jumped and pulled-off an armbar. Benchohra tried to fend it off but it was too late, Fontaine had securely locked-in the submission move. The sheer technical brilliance of the move was a treat to watch.

#10 Genki Sudo’s swing to leg-lock transition

Sudo, with his novel way of entering the ring

It was the year 2000 and Genki Sudo, the insane Japanese fighter (nicknamed the “Neo-Samurai”), was fighting a man named Craig Oxley. While Oxley held Sudo in a guard position, the Japanese couldn’t take it for long so he tried something which was never ever tried before: he grabbed Oxley’s ankles and swirled him in circles, like a helicopter.

Yes, this happened in a real fight. As he landed Oxley, Sudo instantly transitioned into a leg-lock which forced the unsuspecting Oxley to do nothing but tap-out.