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It sounds hard to believe, but we’re almost at the end of another decade – the 2010’s – and over the past ten years of UFC action, we’ve seen some amazing fights, amazing shows and obviously, some amazing knockouts.
Whittling 10 years of jaw-dropping KO’s down to a top five was always going to be tricky; should the list be comprised of the spectacular, or the more historically important? It’s hard to say. The following 5 knockouts, though, were both spectacular and historically important, meaning they’ll probably be remembered for decades to come.
Here are the 5 greatest UFC knockouts of the past decade (2010-2019).
#5 Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva, UFC 162 – 07/06/2013
It was the knockout that shattered a legend, and was widely considered one of the greatest upsets in UFC history. Coming into UFC 162, Anderson Silva had reeled off a ludicrous 16 victories in a row in UFC action, and had successfully defended his UFC Middleweight title – the title he won in 2006 – on 10 occasions. Weidman was unbeaten at 9-0 and had picked up half of his victories inside the Octagon, but nobody really expected him to beat the seemingly unstoppable ‘Spider’.
Chris Weidman had other ideas, though, and showed no intimidation despite the Brazilian’s best attempts at getting inside his head, clowning and taunting him throughout the first round despite being taken down early in the fight. ‘The All-American’ was undeterred, and in the second round, Silva made the mistake of taunting him a little too much.
He attempted to lean out of the way of some punches after faking being stunned, but hadn’t quite reckoned with Weidman’s long reach. Weidman’s right hand missed, but a heavy left hook clocked the champion cleanly on the jaw, and down Silva went – knocked unconscious for the first time in his 16-year career.
The fight had earth-shattering ramifications; Silva has won just one fight in the six years that have followed while Weidman went on to make two successful defences of the Middleweight crown – but never again quite reached the heights that this knockout initially propelled him to.
#4 Holly Holm vs. Ronda Rousey, UFC 193 – 11/14/2015
There have been plenty of spectacular head kick knockouts over the years in the UFC, but while there have been more aesthetically pleasing ones than Holly Holm’s 2015 finish of Ronda Rousey, this one perhaps left the biggest mark on the UFC and on the sport of MMA as a whole. Rousey was the UFC’s first female superstar, one of the promotion’s biggest draws, and as UFC Bantamweight champion, she looked unstoppable.
‘Rowdy Ronda’ was unbeaten in MMA at 12-0, she’d defended her UFC title 6 times in just two years, and she’d been destroying anyone in front of her, with her last three wins alone totalling just over one minute. Unfortunately, she’d begun to rely on her burgeoning striking skills a little too much – and against a kickboxer the calibre of former world champion Holm, that was always going to get her into trouble.
And so the story of the fight went; Holm simply played the matador to Rousey’s bull, catching her with clean strikes as she rushed in, and the lone time that ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ was taken down, she was able to reverse to her feet.
The end came a minute into the second round. Rousey had already been stunned by a punch, and with the champion wobbly, Holm went for the kill. She landed a picture-perfect left head kick that sent ‘The Rowdy One’ to the ground, unconscious on impact. Not only had Holm taken Rousey’s title, but she’d shattered her unstoppable aura too.
#3 Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo, UFC 194 – 12/12/2015
UFC 194’s main event was built as one of the biggest – if not the biggest – fights in UFC history, as legendary Featherweight champion Jose Aldo put his title on the line against the fast-rising Irish superstar Conor McGregor, but few could’ve known that the fight would also produce one of the promotion’s all-time great knockouts.
McGregor had been promising something special leading into the fight, but despite delivering the goods up to that point – with five UFC victories to his name including a win over former title challenger Chad Mendes – there were still some fans who felt that ‘The Notorious One’ was all mouth. They were silenced when the fight finally came to pass.
Aldo – who looked more nervous than he’d ever done for his previous seven title defences – came out looking to strike, and in practically the first exchange of the fight, he caught McGregor with a clean left hand. The only problem? McGregor had gotten there first, and caught Aldo with a perfectly-timed left just as the Brazilian threw his own punch.
Aldo went down face-first and a pair of hammer fists sealed the deal. Not only had McGregor done exactly as he’d promised by dethroning the longtime champ, he’d also finished him off in just 13 seconds, handing him his first loss since 2005. On this night, a superstar was well and truly born, and ‘The Notorious One’ hasn’t looked back since.
#2 Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, UFC 126 – 02/05/2011
Anderson Silva’s legendary UFC Middleweight title reign – which lasted from October 2006 all the way through to July 2013 – was filled with the kind of fights that made people’s heads spin, and for various reasons, too. He thrilled and awed against Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen, but he also bored people to tears in his dull fights with Demian Maia and Thales Leites.
His most special moment though, without a shadow of a doubt, came in his 2011 title defense against fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort. It was a fight that had been built for some time, and asked a single question: could the ultra-fast hands and boxing style of ‘The Phenom’ be the correct combination to finally defeat ‘The Spider’, who had already reeled off 12 straight UFC wins?
The answer, emphatically, was no, but Silva went one step beyond in this fight, treating everyone to a jaw-dropping knockout. After a long feeling out process, the two fighters began to attack a little more – and out of nowhere, Silva stunned everyone by hitting Belfort with a front kick to the jaw, knocking him down. Some punches on the ground sealed the win, but it was the kick that had done the damage.
Nobody could really believe their eyes, largely because nobody had ever been knocked out with a front kick before. Of course, the finish opened the floodgates; the front kick became a major weapon and fighters ranging from Lyoto Machida to Alistair Overeem and Magomed Ankalaev have now finished opponents with it, but at the time, this was Matrix-level stuff, and changed the way that everyone viewed the move for good.
#1 Jorge Masvidal vs. Ben Askren, UFC 239 – 07/06/2019
Back in January 2006, Duane ‘Bang’ Ludwig knocked out Jonathan Goulet in just six seconds, setting a UFC record for the fastest KO in promotional history in the process. By the time the start of 2019 rolled around, it’d been 13 years since Ludwig’s marker and nobody had managed to break it, despite a couple coming close.
That all changed this past July when Welterweights Jorge Masvidal and Ben Askren met at UFC 239. The stakes weren’t overly high – rumours were swelling of a title shot for Askren with a win, but that was it – but the fight was still massively heated coming in due to the animosity between the two men. Unfortunately for Askren, none of his animosity was given the chance to boil over come fight time.
Masvidal charged out of his corner, and as Askren leant forwards for a takedown – a move ‘Gambred’ and his team had anticipated – the Cuban fighter leapt into the air and hit him with a perfect flying knee to the temple. ‘Funky Ben’ was sent crashing down, already stiff as a corpse, and although Masvidal landed a couple of follow up shots, they weren’t needed.
The fight was called off after just 5 seconds – finally breaking Ludwig’s record – but in reality Askren was unconscious after just two or three. Simply put, this was a ridiculous, mind-bending knockout and easily the best flying knee in the history of MMA. And what’s more, it launched Masvidal as a UFC superstar too – just in time for a new decade to begin. For me, there’s been none better in the last ten years.
