The fight game is a fickle mistress. In a sliver of a second, years of painstaking perfectionism can crumble while an also-ran suddenly finds himself on the threshold of the throne. It is for this arcane hope that fighters walk through the fire and plunge themselves into Spartanism.
The sport of mixed martial arts transcends disciplines; a fighter has an array of weapons at his side when going into battle. But most do not know the pain that comes with carving and hammering a man into a fighter armed with such a diverse arsenal. Elite mixed martial artists know not just how to launch a pronged assault, but also how to countervail one.
We, the bloodthirsty throngs, have seen fighters meet their end in many ways. But the ever-changing face of MMA has increasingly chosen urbanity over its primordial traits. So much so that even a novice in today’s game could run circles around a renowned warrior of the prior era.
Not that that’s a bad thing – the number of conoisseurs of sophisticated savagery is growing.
With successive generations of fighters becoming more adroit than the last, the time of the casual fan is dusking. Those who started from that rank have risen because their loyalty to the sport has given them vision that helps them appreciate what they would have been blind to in their infancy.
But there’s one thing that can unite generations-old and the greenest of fight fans – ultra-violence. Regardless of how polished the mixed martial artist or his lead on the score cards, there comes a moment in a contest when every sinew of a fighter’s self aligns in harmony. A sort of timeless force charges body, mind and warrior nucleus. It is as inexplicable as a spitting cobra’s laser accuracy that unerringly shoots venom into the opposer’s eyes or a lion’s unfaltering instinct to snap down on the jugular.
The result is a frozen-in-time, blink-and-miss-it knockout – the force of a lighting strike that petrifies the steeliest of fighters and renders them limp. We’re talking about strikes that are coursing with tectonic force, which put battle-hardened men and women in limbo.
We’ve curated a collection of the 13 most painful to watch faceplant knockouts in MMA history. For your viewing pleasure.
#13 Anthony “Rumble” Johnson vs DJ Linderman
After his triumphant return to the octagon in 2014, Anthony Johnson said that he was grateful to Dana White showing him the door because of his repeated violations of weight limits. In the post-fight interview after beating steaming contender Phil Davis, Rumble said that being cut had made him the “beast” he is.
That is no exaggeration – he could probably snuff out the lights on a buffalo or a horse. After pyrrhic attempts to fit in as a Welterweight and a Middleweight, Rumble finally accepted that his true identity is at Light Heavyweight.
A decision whose felicity is verified by the number of bodies he’s left in his trail of carnage. One of those was Bellator veteran DJ Linderman.
The two faced off for Titan FC in November 2012 in what was only Rumble’s third fight at 205 lbs. A little into the first round, it appeared as though Linderman had accidentally poked Rumble in the eye. With no respite offered by the referee, Linderman charged forward, hoping to exploit the assumed chink in Rumble’s armour.
What he got was a ballistic right hand instead.
Rumble’s resurgence would create the unique and fearsome record of the most sub-minute knockouts in UFC history(5). In a couple of months, at UFC 210, Rumble will seek to avenge his loss to Daniel Cormier and sign off on a true Cinderella story by winning the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
Oh and did we mention? He slept perennial contender Glover Teixiera in his previous fight with a single punch, leaving him looking not too dissimilar to Linderman after it.
#12 Duane Ludwig’s fastest KO in UFC history vs. Jonathan Goulet
Ex-UFC commentator Michael Goldberg was often guilty of embarrassing himself on air with his fumbles and tacky, perfunctory exclamations. But this time, he switched it up and gave the crowd’s snickers more sting by calling Jonathan Goulet the (then) #2 Welterweight in Canada, behind the legendary GSP.
Exactly six seconds before he was knocked out by Duane Ludwig, who was returning to the octagon after two losses on the trot.
Ludwig’s record-speed KO still stands untouched in the UFC, but it was only after he hung up his gloves that he truly came into his own. Bang’s ingenuity was invaluable in Team Alpha Male being named Gym of the Year in 2013 and he was honoured as Coach of the Year for 2013 and 2014. His name will certainly be engraved in a list of the greatest MMA coaches of all time.
Jonathan Goulet retired in 2010 after an up and down career(23-12-1) that counts two UFC Fight of the Night awards. The graffiti-haired Canadian was known for using his frizzies as a banner for his sponsors and his cool but incongruous nickname, “The Road Warrior”.
He was labelled that because he used to accept and travel to fights on very short notice, often without trainers or cornermen.
#11 Dan Henderson vs Fedor Emelianenko
It speaks to the celebrity of Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko that two men,well past what most considered their peak, could generate such electric hype for a fight. The collision between the two comets that missed each other in PRIDE finally took place under the Strikeforce banner.
After some exchanges in the first few minutes of the fight, Fedor let loose a staccato of punches that tumbled Hendo. Fedor pounced on his prone foe, and it looked like he was about to erase the memory of two consecutive, bitter losses with a reverberant win.
What followed next was similar to a fight scene where the villain towers over the seemingly helpless hero, about to strike the killing blow. Just like the good guy rolls out of range at the last nerve-racking second, swoops up an out-of-frame weapon and slays the baddie, Hendo pulled off the slickest of sweeps and threw an H-bomb back down the tunnel.
The Last Emperor tasted the floor for a second before Herb Dean waved it off and was released from Strikeforce after this third straight loss.
#10 Mark Hunt vs Roy Nelson
There exist only a handful of active fighters who hook crowds by the boatload only because of their ability to swallow punches like fire-eaters and put a full stop with one punch. Japanese fans are known to be violence junkies so imagine the fireworks display their neurons must’ve resembled when the bell rang for this fight.
Even the biggest fan of Roy Nelson will admit that he is not known to pre-empt or try to decipher his opponents’ offense. Mark Hunt always uses his jabs to gauge the distance between him and his opponent’s chin. Neither uses a high pace to hound foes, but an uneventful first round was all the Super Samoan needed to finish the equation.
He programmed the slouching Nelson to duck further down to slip his jab, which put Big Country in the middle of the crosshairs for his uppercut.
Hunt became only the second man in the list of powerhouses Nelson has faced to knock him out and given that the latter is 40 years old, he might be the last fighter to be able to make that claim as well.
#9 Cung Le vs Rich Franklin
At first glance, this fight didn’t really quicken the pulse – two former champions, with unassailable legacies but whose stars were fading. But a closer look would be more telling – Cung Le was a legend in the realms of sport karate and sanshou; the 37-year-old Franklin had recently shared the stage with Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell and scripted edge-of-the-seat wins.
Both men were known for walking into the storm without batting an eyelid, so the more intuitive of the MMA faithful had their bets on a full-blown barnburner. But like amateur treasure hunters who go sniffing for arrowheads but stumble upon treasure, fans couldn’t believe their luck.
The fight begun predictably, with both fighters’ antennae pricked, feinting and studying each others’ reactions. A little into the third minute, Franklin looked to bait Le with a leg kick. Not only did the former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion bite, he put Franklin under with a ferocious right hook.
That clinical shot earned Le the Knockout of the Year for 2012. This bout would prove to be Franklin’s last; he took a 3-year hiatus from fighting, during which he was appointed VP of ONE FC. In 2015, Franklin announced his retirement in a column for The Players’ Tribune.
#8 Ronda Rousey vs Bethe Correia
The prologue to this fight was more like a gangster flick than an MMA contest. After stampeding over two of the four Horsewomen, Bethe Correia set her sights on the ringleader and the only queen the UFC then knew. The Brazilian’s insolence eclipsed even Rousey’s brazenness and turned a title fight into a blood feud.
Correia’s momentum, coupled with the fact that she was in front of her countrymen, made fans wonder if she was the one who would bring Rousey’s dominion to its knees. Thiry-four seconds later, they had an answer. An unflinching Rousey beat Correia in a firefight which didn’t leave her unscathed.
In the video, there’s a moment where the look on Correia’s face screams, “My god, what have I gotten myself into?!”
#7 Nick Diaz vs Robbie Lawler
It is singular that Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler are still not only competing at the highest levels of the sport, but also that their stocks are blue chip. Both were throwing leather at an age when most did not know in which direction they wanted their lives to progress.
At UFC 47, Lawler, 22 and Diaz, 21 stared at each other from across the octagon. The ten fights each had under his belt had already bred the trademark behaviour that would make crowds explode for years to come – Lawler’s masochistic, is-that-all-you-got smile every time he got struck and Diaz’s derision and gall.
Neither pulled his punches in the first round, staggering the other and when the bell ushered in the second, both picked up where they left off. The crowd was awash with shock and thrill when Diaz, the BJJ prodigy, toppled the brawling Lawler with a right jab that encapsulated Newton’s third law of motion.
To this day, the act marks one of two times that Lawler has lost by knockout and Diaz has won by the same device.
#6 Alexander Emelianenko vs Ricardo Morais
Alexander Emelianenko had the MMA world’s scrutiny when he debuted in PRIDE as a 22-year-old. Despite growing up in the shadow of his brother, the great Fedor Emelianenko, Alex was believed to have gotten the lion’s share when it came to pure physical gifts.
The Grim Reaper had rapid hands and movement for a 6’5” Heavyweight and ground game par excellence owing to his sambo roots. But that’s where all parallels ended. Alexander’s focus and discipline were a speck of that which rocketed Fedor to the top of the MMA pantheon.
The success he had in MMA competition came against second rate fighters and was stained by his rowdy ways.
This knockout is one of them; it came when Alex’s PRIDE career had just started streaming forth and Ricardo Morais’ was slowing to a halt. The 38-year-old Brazilian had one more fight before he hung up his gloves.
Last September, Alexander Emelianenko was released after serving a little over a year of a four-and-a-half year sentence for sexual assault. Word has it that he will soon return to the ring.
#5 Abel Trujillo vs Jamie Varner
Jamie Varner will go down as one of the great ruptured promises in MMA. The former WEC Lightweight Champion was on choppy seas in the UFC, but went into this fight as the favorite.
Both were looking to brand their names with a highlight performance and fired on all cylinders from the bell. In the second round, a panting Varner tried to carve a finish after landing a couple of good shots on Trujillo. But the less experienced fighter centred himself and with clarity that pierced the chaos, hammered Varner’s jaw into the other side of his face.
Varner’s once-fertile MMA career withered further with this knockout and two losses later, he called it quits. Trujillo’s three fight win streak was snapped by James Vick with a D’Arce choke at UFC Fight Night Houston, last weekend.
#4 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Brendan Schaub
At UFC 134, Minotauro Nogueira and Brendan Schaub faced trail by fire. The Brazilian legend had his back to the wall in front of his home crowd, having lost the UFC Heavyweight title and denied redemption by a ruthless Cain Velasquez.
Since being knocked out by Roy Nelson in the TUF10 finale, Brendan Schaub had finished 3 of his 4 wins and was looking to vault up the ranks and lay claim to the 265 lbs. belt. The consequence of the fight not lost on them, Big Nog and Big Brown did not draw a bead.
What followed was a game of Russian Roulette, with the slightest misstep meaning ruin. Nogueira’s battle-tested chin would compound Schaub’s inexpertise as he overshot his mark and paid for it.
Minotauro had come home.
#3 Nate Marquardt vs Demian Maia
Demian Maia’s engulfing BJJ had created ripples that lapped the UFC and it wasn’t long before he had strangled his way to the list of contenders for Anderson Silva’s crown. At UFC 102, Maia’s undefeated streak was threatened by former title challenger and now gatekeeper, Nate Marquardt.
The Brazilian had won all but two of his fights by submission, including five in the UFC. Everyone expected Maia’s instincts to take over and him to put on another masterclass in the cage. But what unfolded instead, was a case study in risk avoidance or rather, non-avoidance. Maia had been developing his striking under the nurturing eye of Wanderlei Silva for this fight. Unfortunately, he overlooked the fact that Wanderlei had passed on skills to Maia, but not his chin.
A few seconds after the first bell, Maia threw a breezy leg kick which was answered by a barbaric right hand from Marquardt. Maia’s limp body crashing to the floor resembled a plane that had been blasted out of the sky. Marquardt pocketed a Knockout of the Night bonus and Maia received title shot one fight later, so all’s well that ends well.
#2 Gary Goodridge vs Don Frye
PRIDE Shockwave 2003 was the stage for the curtains to come down on the famed career of Gary Goodridge. His record belies the fact that “Big Daddy” was always a draw in Japan, with almost all his fights being finished.
UFC legend Don Frye was brought in to play spoilsport that night. Frye’s five-year jaunt into pro-wrestling had made him more muscled than in his heyday in the UFC, and with the old-glory trunks, his resemblance to a gunslinger from the Old West was more obvious than ever.
But all those bulges only weighed down the 38-year-old. Goodridge’s kickboxing past kept him lighter on his feet despite him being the bigger man. A little into the first minute, a right hook served as a yardstick and Frye’s lead feet didn’t escape Goodridge. After feinting a leg kick, Goodridge sent his shin whomping into Frye’s head. Game over.
#1 Wanderlei Silva vs Quinton Jackson 2
If PRIDE is considered the Wild West of the MMA world, Wanderlei Silva vs Quinton Jackson is the OK Corral. Silva was at the peak of his savagery and at every opportunity, was stamping into spectators’ minds that his moniker, “The Axe Murderer”, was no accident.
This was a rematch of the 2003 Middleweight Grand Prix Final, where Silva had unleashed his wicked knees on Rampage’s skull with such ferocity that the referee had to rescue him from further torture.
The sequel was even better than the original – Rampage’s power shots meshed with Silva’s wielding fists to paint a masterpiece of mayhem. The first round of the fight left the audience in the Saitama Super Arena breathless, with both drawing blood and buckling the other.
The chaos did not ebb in the second round and with a little over a minute to go, it looked as though a third round would be necessary. Just then Silva landed an uppercut that made Rampage retreat. Sensing his prey weaken, Silva let fly his secret weapon, this time with such fiendish intensity that Rampage was thrown into the abyss before the referee could step in.
It won Fight of the Year in 2004 and is tattooed in the hearts of fight lovers as one of the great wars in MMA history.
