On Saturday night, UFC middleweight Joaquin Buckley made himself an instant superstar with one of the most unbelievable knockouts ever in MMA, a jumping, spinning taekwondo back kick that completely removed Impa Kasanganay from consciousness.
I wrote about this KO extensively after it happened, and it’s still completely unreal. Odds are, you’ve already seen it a bunch of times. Why not take another few looks?
I was not only astounded by the kick, but how quickly everyone on Earth seemed to unanimously agree that it was the greatest knockout in UFC history. And it got me thinking: do I also agree? Where do I really think Buckley’s kick’s place in history lies? I gotta figure this out.
I’ve decided to rank what I think are the seven best KOs in UFC history, an arbitrary number that has absolutely no meaning. And this is my personal ranking, so it’ll lean towards fights I watched live – with respect to the old heads, I was a small child when Frank Shamrock slammed Igor Zinoviev or when Mark Coleman got booted in the face by Pete Williams and his wrestling shoes.
So without further ago, here we go:
7. Lyoto Machida vs. Randy Couture, April 30, 2011
Every now and then, something will happen in sports that seems like it was pulled out of a Hollywood script. It doesn’t happen often, but they’re the moments that really make sports worth watching. But even rarer is when a moment happens in real-life that is literally just taken directly from an actual movie that we’ve all seen.
One of those moments happened in Toronto in April 2011. That was when Lyoto Machida, the karate master, knocked the legendary Randy Couture dead with the crane technique from The Karate Kid.
No can defend. My girlfriend recently started watching the TV show Cobra Kai on Netflix, so I’ve been thinking about this knockout a lot lately, and witnessing it was a moment of utter magic that has very rarely been replicated in my years watching this sport.
It’s sometimes easy to forget how much of a paradigm-shifting fighter Machida was in his prime. Fighters like him, who came from traditional martial arts backgrounds like karate or taekwondo, were often derided – the sport belonged to wrestle-boxers and BJJ guys.
But then Machida tore through the UFC light heavyweight division like a buzzsaw, and opened the way for other fighters like him to thrive. “The Dragon” showed us all that the mystic arts were always real. They just needed to be properly adapted to a new environment.
Against Couture, he topped himself completely. We’ve seen other great front kick knockouts since – Machida will make another appearance with one later on this list – but few carried this kind of air. You knew the instant you saw it that it you would never forget it as long as you lived.
A stately karate warrior smashing an American badass with the crane technique? Now that’s just downright plagiarism.
6. Edson Barboza vs. Terry Etim, Jan. 14, 2012
Certain kicking techniques are often more appealing on aesthetic grounds more than anything else. There’s a reason spinning kick KOs are so rare – they’re super cool to look at, but difficult to land and take a long time to actually load up. Why throw some fancy wheel kick when a normal head kick can get to its target in half the time?
But in Jan. 2012, Edson Barboza showed us that the most aesthetically pleasing strikes can carry with them the most malice.
Barboza has carved out a long and successful career as a top lightweight (and now, featherweight) due largely to his Muay Thai skill and absolutely humongous kicking power. This knockout of Terry Etim still feels like the moment that really launched him.
It’s one of the cleanest and most picturesque knockouts in the history of the sport. If I were trying to introduce someone to how cool mixed martial arts can be, I would show them this clip. How immaculately tight and precise Barboza’s spin is. The absolute force with which the kick lands, in the perfect spot. How Etim falls, completely unconscious, like a sack of potatoes. How, completely serendipitously, Joe Rogan screams the words “knocked out!” right as the kick lands.
Utterly beautiful. A knockout that will forever be a 10/10, in every single way.
T5. Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, Feb. 5, 2011 / Lyoto Machida vs. Vitor Belfort, May 12, 2018
UFC legend Vitor Belfort has been on the receiving end of multiple unbelievable front kick knockouts in his long and storied career. In the end, I couldn’t choose between them. They were both unbelievable in different ways.
The first one (skip to about 3:10 in the above video) represented the GOAT at the apex of his power. Anderson Silva was one fight removed from Chael Sonnen giving him one of the tests of his life, and a juiced-up Vitor looked the most dangerous that he had in years.
Silva’s reign of middleweight dominance looked to be in doubt. Instead, he pulled out a technique no one had ever seen before – you have to remember, this was the FIRST TIME anyone had hit a front kick knockout on any sort of visible stage – and ended Belfort’s night. It was a fighting genius at his most brilliant.
The knockout from Machida doesn’t always end up as high on all-time knockout rankings – probably since the fight wasn’t as big, as both were on the downswings of their careers and would leave the UFC shortly after – but it’s one of my all-time favorite UFC moments for how purely cinematic it is.
The karate master stares down his vicious, powerful enemy. He picks his spot. He knocks him cold with a perfect and deadly strike that no one, especially his opponent, saw coming. And then, as the vanquished falls to the floor, he doesn’t rush in for a brutish, nasty series of punches to an already defeated man. He stands there, offers a gentle bow, and drops to his knees, his task complete.
Vitor never fought again. I guess he had enough of front kicks. I can’t blame him.
4. Yair Rodriguez vs. Chan Sung Jung, Nov. 10, 2018
Sometimes a knockout is just an absolute perfect storm of technique, impact, and situation. In 2018, top featherweights Yair Rodriguez and Chan Sung Jung were engaged in a great main-event war that more than delivered on the action it promised. With seconds left in the fifth round, it looked like we were going to a judge’s decision, and it was obvious that both men had earned each other’s respect.
As you sometimes see in the closing moments of a fight like that, the two fighters hugged, gave each other props, then loaded up for one last wild exchange. But literally as the horn sounded to end the fight, Rodriguez caught Jung on his way in with the single most ridiculous elbow in the history of the sport, a ducking, backpedaling upward strike that knocked his opponent completely unconscious.
That elbow could have happened in the middle of the first round, on the first prelim fight of the card, and it would have been the Knockout of the Year. But it happened in the main event, in the last moment of an extremely entertaining brawl – one in which Rodriguez probably needed a knockout to take home a win. Furthermore, it happened against the Korean Zombie, a man famous for his ability to take massive shots and always keep moving forward. All of those circumstances combined to make one of the most unforgettable knockouts in UFC history.
Like I said. Perfect storm.
3. Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping, July 11, 2009
The immortal H-Bomb. The first ever man to simultaneously hold championships in two different weight classes in a major promotion – in 2007, he became Pride’s champion in both the 185-pound and 205-pound divisions – Dan Henderson made himself a true MMA legend with his wrestling ability, an absolutely astonishing chin, and a right hand so monstrously powerful that it inspired tall tales.
Although Henderson never won a UFC title, he was one of the most venerable and respected fighters in the sport for many years. That earned him a prime spot on UFC 100, the biggest pay-per-view in the company’s history, against English prick Michael Bisping.
The popular view of Bisping from most MMA fans, myself included, has softened over the years, due mostly to his feel-good underdog run to the middleweight title in 2016 and his current work as a UFC color commentator, where he’s genuinely witty, fun to listen to, and passionate about the sport. But in 2009, everyone HATED Bisping, who spent his entire time coaching against Hendo on The Ultimate Fighter talking a ton of shit and acting like an asshole.
All along, we prayed to the Violence Gods that Bisping would get his just desserts when the bell rang. And boy, did he. Henderson wound up his fabled right hand, threw maybe the hardest punch of his career, and blasted Bisping dead on the jaw – Bisping was out cold before he hit the ground. Then, in the single most unnecessary follow-up shot in the history of mixed martial arts, Hendo leapt into the air and delivered another right hand to the jaw of an already-unconscious Bisping.
Was it a dick move? Yeah, probably. But at the time, it felt sweet. It was justice served. It felt like after all the antics and the trash talk, Bisping was getting what he deserved. It was pure catharsis in a sport that so rarely gives you that feeling. And 11 years later, it still feels amazing to watch.
2. Joaquin Buckley vs. Impa Kasanganay, Oct. 10, 2020
And here we are with Joaquin Buckley. I’ve already written plenty about this knockout, and again, we’ve all seen it a billion times. We know exactly how unbelievable it was. But it’s an even bigger testament to this knockout that every other KO on this list, and most other lists, came in main events or on big PPV spots.
This knockout will be remembered forever, despite being a prelim between two fighters few people were really familiar with, for a little-hyped ESPN+ card. Very few people, outside of the hardcores, were probably watching this fight when it happened. It still ends up with the most unforgettable moments in the sport’s history.
It’s a testament to our beloved, weird sport. It still keeps giving us things we’ve never seen before.
- Jorge Masvidal vs. Ben Askren, July 6, 2019
The fight clock is brought to you by Model-OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!
A knockout that will almost undoubtedly never be matched. For fight fans, Jorge Masvidal-Ben Askren is like the moon landing – you will always remember where you were when it happened. I’ve talked about a few of the knockouts on this list and how they felt like moments from a Hollywood movie, but if a scriptwriter came up with this, he’d get laughed out of the room and probably demoted.
Askren was a world-class wrestler and shameless self-promoter who had earned the irritation of many MMA fans by claiming he could beat the UFC’s best, even as he chose to spend almost his entire career in Bellator and ONE, churning out unanimous decisions against fighters not on his level. When he finally signed with the UFC last year, most people wanted to see him get his ass kicked.
Masvidal was his perfect foil. Askren came from an elite collegiate wrestling background and had honed his particular style to win, no matter the entertainment value. Masvidal was the “Gamebred” street brawler from the slums of Miami, a one-time acquaintance of Kimbo Slice, who was all about throwing down.
When the fight was signed, there was plenty of intrigue, plenty of trash-talk. When the bell finally rang, Askren ducked down to shoot for an immediate takedown, at the exact same instant Masvidal leapt in the air for a flying knee. Boom. A legendary moment was born.
I don’t think a faster knockout can ever be recorded in a UFC cage: it occurred at the first possible moment two men, both moving towards each other, could make physical contact. Although the official recorded time is five seconds, Askren is clearly dropping, stiff as a board, at the two-second mark. They didn’t even get time to put the graphics up on the screen.
I’ve watched this particular knockout more than any other, simply because when I see it posted somewhere, I’m compelled to watch it 20 times in a row. It’s so easy! You can do that in a minute! I have a feeling I’m not alone.
Sometimes I still can’t believe that this actually happened. That’s why it’s going to be No. 1 – at least, until someone knocks someone out with a flying superkick one second into a fight. I have a hunch that the throne is going to be safe for a little while.
The Big Fight 