Heading into the fourth round of Bellator’s main event on Friday night, Sergio Pettis‘ title was as good as gone. His opponent, Japanese superstar Kyoji Horiguchi – one of the best bantamweights in the world – was beating him from pillar to post. Horiguchi was comfortably three rounds up, and Pettis looked like he had nothing for him.
Pettis quite obviously needed a miracle. He got one.
Almost a week after the knockout happened, I still can’t believe it. Pettis did the only thing he could have possibly done – knock Horiguchi cold with something the former champion couldn’t possibly have expected. How about a spinning backfist, a technique that is so rarely pulled off, you can still count the number of straight-up spinning backfist KOs we’ve seen on a high level on your fingers?
Shout-out to Shonie Carter. Earlier this week, I wrote about how Jose Aldo‘s success at such a late stage of his career was a miracle. I might have overstated that. THIS, right here, is a miracle, but also one created by great skill and timing. Pettis disguises the spinning backfist brilliantly through a right high kick that he doesn’t appear to throw with any real intention of landing – the purpose of that kick was always to set up the backfist. Horiguchi, a karate stylist who typically likes to fight with his hands low, can’t defend it.
It got me thinking about where this KO stands among the best Hail Mary KOs of all time, knockouts that came late in a fight where a fighter was clearly on their way to defeat, and their only path to victory was something desperate and glorious. Pettis’ win stands out, considering that it was in a title fight, and Horiguchi was on cruise control for a 5-0 shutout.
A few other great ones come to mind. Yair Rodriguez‘s unforgettable reverse elbow KO over Chan Sung Jung may be the only one on par, for a few different reasons. It was in the closing moments of the fight – literally, the final second – and saw a fighter who was about to lose a decision steal a win through a technique that you almost never see win fights.
Derrick Lewis has a few great ones as well, where he stands there and does nothing for the entire fight, is about to lose, then hits one massive shot that wins the night – his win over Alexander Volkov. which came with 11 seconds left on the clock, is particularly memorable in that respect.
And of course, there’s the guy I mentioned above, Shonie Carter. In 2001, Carter was headed for a decision loss to future UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra, when with just a few seconds left in the fight he presaged what Pettis did on Friday – swinging through after a missed left high kick with a backfist that turned Serra’s lights out. It was the first spinning backfist KO in UFC history, and one of those moments they showed on every highlight reel for years.
But of course, that fight didn’t have nearly the stakes Pettis-Horiguchi did. And the greatest Hail Mary moment ever in MMA – Anderson Silva‘s fifth-round triangle choke on Chael Sonnen, one of the most epic moments in the sport’s history – was a submission, so it doesn’t count here.
But Shonie Carter’s knockout, despite happening in what would have been an otherwise forgettable prelim on a show in the UFC’s dark age, stood out for many years as one of the most incredible the sport had ever seen. Sergio Pettis just did that same thing to win a world title. I think you can lock it in: what he did was the greatest miracle KO in MMA history.
The Big Fight 