2011 Knockout of the Year

[INDYjon22]

2011 was honestly a pretty brutal year in MMA. There were a lot of sick finishes, both submission wise and knockout wise. Here are the best of the best knockouts according to the posters of this forum. The contenders are:

Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort- UFC126
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This was one hell of a knockout. Never before had I seen someone get KO'ed from a front kick. It was insane when it happened and to some extent I believe brought Anderson back to being the greatest. He had had a lot of lackluster fights preceding this one, but this KO brought back the killer Anderson we all knew.

Lyoto Machida vs. Randy Couture- UFC 129
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Something like a month after the Anderson front kick, we saw another front kick, but this time it was Karate Kid style. Lyoto Machida may have possibly won this award with his Mr. Miyagi learned arsenal of strikes.

Marius Zaromskis vs. Bruno Carvalho- Rumble of the Kings
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While the KO in this fight didn't come from the cartwheel kick, it certainly was the beginning of the end for Carvalho. This cartwheel kick was sudden and devastating. Simply incredible to watch.

Cairo Rocha vs. Francisco Neves- n/a
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Tired of seeing head kicks yet? I didn't think so. This one makes even CroCop cringe. So fast and completely out of nowhere. Shout out to Fizzy for nominating this one, it may have stolen my vote.

John Makdessi vs. Kyle Watson- UFC 129
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Shonie Carter is smiling somewhere. This was a beautiful KO and one we haven't seen in awhile. It just proves that having your vision impaired in MMA is a horrible, horrible thing.

Carlos Condit vs. Dong Hyung Kim- UFC 132
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Fantastic flying knee, from possibly the best striker in the entire Welterweight division. I don't think Kim had been finished before this fight, at the very least it was his first UFC loss, but it was in devastating fashion.

Johnny Hendricks vs. Jon Fitch- UFC 141
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This one makes me cry a little. Hendricks laid Fitch clean out. It was incredibly sad to see as a fan, but such a nice KO at the same time. "Mini Arlovski" does it again.

Adam Khaliev vs. Alexei Belyaev - League S-70 Fight Nights​

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And, one more beautiful head kick from the year. That might just be what 2011 is known for, awesome head kicks. Just awesome to watch.

Cheick Kongo vs. Pat Barry - UFC on Versus 4​

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I just couldn't resist posting this entire fight. Holy hell have I never seen anything like this one. Kongo was out twice, yet regained consciousness in time and came back to win with a hell of a punch. Awesome, awesome fight.

 

[JWGunslinger]

Incredibly difficult decision here as 2011 gave us some of the greatest KO's of all time, in the end I went with Rocha vs Neves. My personal favorite was Condit KOing Kim because it shot him into contention and it was an awesome finish. I loved Kongo vs Barry because Cheick was done and he somehow came back and finished it. But without a doubt none were more impressive Rocha's kick, the precision and timing to hit that was incredible and it was a blast to watch.

 

[Fizzy]

Cairo Rocha vs. Francisco Neves without a doubt. For me, this was a bigger "holy shit" moment than the Pettis kick. Everytime I see a kick like that, I can't help but watch it over and over again because I just cannot comprehend how precise you must be to connect with that. Everything needs to go perfectly and when it does, it gives you an absolutely beautiful knock out. Nothing can change my mind, not even my love for Anderson Silva.

 

[Final Form Snyper.]

I've got to go with Kongo vs Barry. I guess this could also win a Comeback of the Year award as well. I thought that Kongo was done and it was only a matter of time before the referee stopped the fight. What happened next is something that I would call a miracle.

 

[The Best]

It's really close here, as all of these are very well deserving. I went with Machida's kick over Couture. Before Anderson Silva of course, we have not seen a front kick/ crane kick for a KO in the UFC before, and I liked Machida's more than Silva's because, it was more sudden than Silva's in my opinion. Also, this will go down as the kick that retired the great legend, Randy Couture. This is the kick the concluded the career of the top heavyweight, #2 light heavyweight, and top 5 pound for pound fighter of all time so far. The mix of the KO and what is did gets my vote hear in a very close contest.

 

[Uncle Phatso]

I came in here and had the crane kick in mind. Watching that in slow mo, jesus it was my favorite kick in a long time.

But still after watching the videos Rocha vs Neves steals it. That kick was just fucking brutal. The Randy knockout was amazing, but that kick made me cringe. Shoutout to Makdessi vs. Watson, because that was a sick back hand.