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This weekend at UFC 286, Kamaru Usman will attempt to regain the welterweight title from the man who knocked him out and took it from him, Leon Edwards.
It remains to be seen whether suffering a devastating knockout will have changed Kamaru Usman’s career trajectory. If it has, he won’t be the first UFC fighter to suffer this way.
Over the years we’ve seen numerous great fighters, even champions, suffer a single brutal knockout that ended up ruining their careers practically for good.
Put simply, these knockouts were so devastating that the victim never truly recovered.
Here are five knockouts that ruined the career of a UFC fighter.
#5. Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Mirko Cro Cop – UFC 70
When PRIDE superstar Mirko Cro Cop joined the UFC off the back of his Openweight Grand Prix win in late 2006, it seemed like only a matter of time before he claimed gold in the octagon too.
Sure, heavyweight champ Randy Couture was a highly respected fighter, but outside of ‘The Natural’, the division at the time was painfully thin. Even Couture was coming toward the end of his career at the age of 43.
Cro Cop delivered the goods in his promotional debut, easily dispatching Eddie Sanchez. When he was matched with grappler Gabriel Gonzaga in his second bout, a win seemed like a formality.
Remarkably, though, ‘Napao’ had other ideas entirely.
After the Brazilian surprised Cro Cop with an early takedown and roughed him up with elbows, referee Herb Dean decided to call a stand-up.
Fans began to buzz at the idea of an incoming knockout, but while they were given what they wanted, it didn’t come in the way they expected.
Gonzaga destroyed Cro Cop with his own favorite move – a brutal head kick – and left him unconscious for some time.
The kick totally changed the Croatian’s career trajectory. His deadly aura shattered, he lost his next fight to Cheick Kongo and then found himself out of the UFC for a time, but even a return to Japan couldn’t give him his mojo back.
Cro Cop did return to the octagon for a second run, but ended up losing more fights than he won – including four TKO defeats – and never did claim gold. In fact, it’s fair to say he was never the same fighter.
#4. Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard – UFC 136
When Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard squared off for the lightweight title at the start of 2011, one of the craziest fights in octagon history ensued.
Maynard hurt Edgar badly in the early going, but try as he might, he couldn’t quite put him away. ‘The Answer’ somehow fought back and ended up managing to secure a draw, retaining his title in the process.
It was no surprise when an immediate rematch was booked nine months later at UFC 136, and Maynard seemed determined to come away with the title.
Remarkably, ‘The Bully’ started the second fight in the same way he’d done in the previous one – by hammering Edgar with heavy shots. Once again, ‘The Answer’ looked on the verge of being stopped.
This time, though, not only did he find a way to survive, but in the fourth round, he stunned everyone by landing a huge uppercut that sent Maynard stumbling backward. Unlike the challenger, Edgar then followed up with a flurry, finishing the fight.
The knockout was actually Maynard’s first professional loss, but it certainly wouldn’t be his last. ‘The Bully’ never recovered, and after one bounce-back win, he lost his next four bouts, including three via TKO. He never climbed back into contention.
Essentially, his loss to Edgar not only shattered Maynard’s confidence, but his durability too, making it a great example of a knockout that ruined a fighter’s career.
#3. Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman – UFC 194
The next example on this list didn’t see the losing fighter knocked out in one shot like the others did, but it remains a great example of a TKO loss that ruined a career.
Coming into his middleweight title defense against Luke Rockhold at UFC 194, Chris Weidman was on top of his game.
After upsetting Anderson Silva in 2013 and defeating the legendary Brazilian in an immediate rematch, ‘The All-American’ turned back the challenges of Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort. He looked practically unstoppable.
However, after a back-and-forth beginning to his clash with Rockhold, Weidman made a major mistake in the third round.
He threw a spinning back kick that missed, allowing Rockhold to take his back and take him down. From there, the challenger punished ‘The All-American’ with brutal strikes from the top. Incredibly, the fight went deep into the fourth until it was mercifully stopped.
It was the first time Weidman had suffered a loss in MMA, but while he took a year off to recover, he was never the same upon his return.
In the years that have followed, not only does Weidman’s durability seem to have left him, but so do the power and dynamics that made him so successful in the first place.
Since losing to Rockhold, he’s suffered a further five defeats – all five via KO or TKO – while winning just twice.
#2. Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell – UFC 88
Few fighters went downhill quite as quickly as former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell did toward the end of his career.
‘The Iceman’, who held the 205lbs title from early 2005 through to mid-2007, lost his crown to Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson via knockout. However, he didn’t seem too badly affected when he then defeated Wanderlei Silva in a wild brawl, showing off an iron chin in the process.
Things changed for Liddell when he faced rising star Rashad Evans a year later.
‘Sugar’ wasn’t given all that much of a chance of winning prior to the fight, largely because he hadn’t really beaten anyone of Liddell’s pedigree. In fact, he’d struggled to get past two-time Liddell victim Tito Ortiz.
Incredibly, though, Evans demonstrated a much-improved striking game against Liddell and used his superior speed to land big shots throughout the fight.
The killer blow ended up being a crushing right hand in the second round that left ‘The Iceman’ unconscious. It was a scary moment, as Liddell took an age to come around and looked like he’d been shot.
From there, Liddell went from being a fighter with an iron chin to one who could seemingly be knocked out by an innocuous blow. He fought just two more times in the octagon, suffering KO losses to Shogun Rua and Rich Franklin. Neither seemed to really catch him with powerful shots.
Essentially, while he probably didn’t have long left anyway, it’s fair to say that Liddell’s career was left in ruins by Evans’ right hand.
#1. Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald – UFC 189
While the final blow he took in his fateful bout wasn’t a killer shot to the chin, it’s fair to say that the best example of a fighter being ruined by a knockout loss is Rory MacDonald.
Back in 2015, ‘The Red King’ was widely seen as one of the UFC’s most feared welterweights. After bursting onto the scene in 2010, he’d defeated the likes of BJ Penn, Demian Maia, and Tyron Woodley to move into line for a title shot.
At UFC 189, MacDonald faced off in a rematch with Robbie Lawler, who had beaten him in their first meeting two years prior, hoping to become the new kingpin at 170lbs.
However, despite his best efforts, it wasn’t to be.
‘The Red King’ and ‘Ruthless’ put on a fight for the ages, with both men taking inhuman amounts of damage across five rounds. At one stage, it looked like MacDonald was on the verge of finishing Lawler after hurting him with a head kick.
Unfortunately, for the Canadian, he couldn’t put ‘Ruthless’ away, and shortly after, suffered a badly broken nose at the hands of the champ.
MacDonald tried to fight on, but in the fifth round, Lawler landed a shot directly to the already-damaged nose, and the challenger’s body simply gave up on him.
The performance turned ‘The Red King’ into a true superstar, but unbeknownst to the fans watching at the time, it’d also ruined his career entirely.
MacDonald fought just once more in the octagon, losing to Stephen Thompson in a poor showing, and then went on to jump ship to Bellator MMA.
However, he never looked the same there, instead becoming a largely gun-shy fighter who was overly concerned every time he was hit in the nose.
The Canadian eventually retired from MMA last year at the age of just 33, having lost seven of 13 bouts following his fateful defeat to Lawler.
