MMA Fighting - MMA Fighting's Top 5 Knockouts Of The Year

Episode Date: December 30, 2020

Check out the winners for MMA Fighting's 2020 Knockout of the Year. Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. MMA Fighting presents the top five knockouts of 2020. At number five, Hamsat Shemayev versus Gerald Mearschart. One punch. Is there any more that needs to be said? We knew Chimaev liked to work fast. He got in and out of the Octagon twice on Fight Island in 10 days, spending just over four minutes to do his work. Even then, he measured a bunch of strikes.

He missed on a bunch. Then he got the job done. This fight, he got close to Gerald Meershardt, and otherwise tough and durable middleweight with a strong grappling game, wound up, threw a right hand, and Orch. Knockout. What else can you say? I am Hamza.

I can knock the out people, like, submit the people, smash the people, everything. I have everything. Number 4. Sean O'Malley versus Eddie Weinland, UFC 250. It was clear from the contender series that Sean O'Malley was a special talent in the Octagon. Not only that, his funkadelic persona was magnetic. Eventually, though, he had to fight tough guys. And not to say O'Malley's previous opposition wasn't.

They just didn't have the high-level experience of Eddie Wineland. The former WEC champion had faced just about every top-tier opponent. at 135. If O'Malley couldn't get past him, he wouldn't go far at Bantamweight. If Wyneland was going to win, he was going to have to get inside to use his favorite boxing.

But even with a smaller cage, O'Malley made sure not to get cornered. Kicks covered his entries and exits, and three inches in height and reach allowed him to catch Wyneland with his fists. Just over one minute into the opening frame, he wheeled his hands as if to say, look at this, and fired an overhand right that connected with impact.

Right there, he found the key to unlock the win. This stuff might not work, mind you, if you're not younger and therefore faster. Weinlens plus and age and experience came with a concurrent minus in speed. In a game where milliseconds count, O'Malley just needed to time things right, as he later explained in this very helpful breakdown of his win. And boy did he, dipping his right hand. And he made Weyland look and uncorked a straight punch with the same fist. Weinland couldn't react in time.

The ex-champ learned what had happened when he woke up a few seconds later. Anybody that I'm going to be taller than pretty much everyone I fight, I'm going to be faster than pretty much everyone I fight, and that's a dangerous combination on top of the skills that I have. So, yeah, I think I was just, I'm just better. At number three, Cody Garbrandt versus Hafeiola Sunsao. UFC.C. 250. Figuratively and quite literally, former band and weight champion Cody Garbrandt was backed against the wall.

As Hafeiola Sunsau advanced at the end of the second round of a co-headliner at UFC 250, Garbrand faced a fourth straight loss in the octagon. Accustomed to being the hammer over the nail, Garbrand's fall was precipitous after. after a pair of knockout losses to T.J. Dillashaw and another against Pedro Munoz. Gunslinging had served the team Alpha Male standout well early in his career. But as he'd run into opponents who could survive his heavy hands, deficits in his chin had been exposed. Moving forward, observers questioned how he could hold up against the best in the world. Hafaula Sunsau, who had once been offered a bantamweight title shot, was the test. The grizzled veteran had his own demons to shake,

needing to prove he was more than an also-ran after a pair of losses sapped his title momentum. So neither man came out gunslinging, but Garbrat's power was still there, evident in a right hand that briefly knocked down a Sunsau. Keen to get one back on the ex-champ, the Brazilian backed up his opponent with a jumping roundhouse and closed in. As a Sunsau wound up for a right,

he kept his left hand nearly at his hip, A perfect opening for a quick-handed counter-puncher, Garbrette, in other words. And the setup? Garbrand turned to his side, crouched, one eye on his opponent, almost looking the part of a wounded animal, was the perfect answer for that literal and figurative bind. When your backs against the wall, keep swinging, and you'll find your problem's chin. All week, Coach Mark and my other coaches were saying, hey, the inside shots, you know, And it's a lot of your knockouts come from the inside shot. So, you know, we'll dip.

And that's what we worked on all camp, you know, just getting back to myself, not being in front of someone, not, I got the speed, I got the power, I got the vision. Don't let these guys, I don't need to stand in front of these guys and brawl and put on a show. I can pick them apart just like that. I stayed calm. I waited for a Sun Sal to open up, you know, doing level changes, doing what I need to do in our game plan with my coaches to get that victory. And it feels so good to just be so intense.

sync with the coaches and to finally get that victory over a tough adversary. The number two knockout of the year, Kevin Holland versus Honolado Jacaray-Souza. At UFC 256. Transitions can be beautiful in MMA. They can also be as awkward as all get out. Look no further than the north-south position. There are tons of spaces fighters confined to do damage in the twisting and tumbling of bodies as they grapple.

That's one of the things that makes MMA so. challenging, particularly for Jiu-Jitsu devotees who are used to safe harbor in certain positions. There is no safe harbor in MMA. You can be on the bottom as Randy Brown was against Nico Price and get knocked out by a hammer fist. You can be in 50-50 as Marcio Cruz was against Andre Arlovsky and get dazed by a punch. Or as Honoldo Jacquezio-Souza found out, you can be on your knees holding on to your opponent's ankle and a hook can crumple you backward against the fence. The amazing thing about Kevin Holland's knockout wasn't necessarily the position from which

he caught Susa, who made a fatal error in not covering up as his opponent was riding himself, but the force with which Holland generated for that fight-altering hook. It came from a swing of his right leg, like someone napping who'd suddenly decided to get off the carpet. Holland just writes his own rules and finds his own spaces to do damage. in the octagon. And unless you're on guard at all times, you're going to be his victim. It worked out. I was really, I'm happy the way it worked out, but I hate that it had to be joccurated I did like that, you know? Legend right there.

And at number one, Joaquin Buckley v. Impa Kasanganei, UFC Fight Island 5. Every hardcore MMA fan has that friend who just won't shut up about how this chop or that technique would clean up in the octagon, right? Mine thinks Stephen Seagall and his wrist locks are too deadly, so deadly that it's impossible to determine the world's toughest fighter because he has been excluded from sanctioned competition. Little did he know, the front kick to the face was Siegel's contribution. Point is, certain techniques don't work in the octagon. We've known this since tournaments weeded out SAFTA and Penchak Silat. New techniques do arrive on the scene from time to time.

but only become widely used when they're affected. That particularly applies to striking. Caff kicks are all the rage because they're relatively low risk and high impact. We don't see a whole lot of wheel kicks because they're more for show than damage. If you want to win, it's not worth it to get too acrobatic. Unless you're walking Buckley. And you've got nothing to lose. A split second hold of the left ankle.

A thought, really. As opponent, Impa Kasanganae paused before trying to disincentivize Buckley from kicking during their UFC Fight Island Five meeting, ended up the literal springboard for a strike more common to video games and taekwondo tournaments than UFC fights. When Kasanganae held, he was clearing the leg like you're trained to do in Muayai. But it was enough support for Buckley, a Walgreens manager on his off hours, to leverage his entire body. With a spin and a back kick from his right leg, he went airborne. That might have been the end of things there. But Buckley stuck his foot right on Kasangene's jaw,

and with an involuntary shutoff of consciousness, the Contender Series veteran toppled like a tree and cemented Buckley's place in UFC history. Anthony's Showtime Pettis only landed his Showtime kick once. These techniques are not destined to be part of the everyday repertoire of UFC fighters. That's why we have to celebrate them when they happen. When a small reaction from one fighter produces a reaction from another that stretches the bounds of what's possible in this sport and gives everyone something to talk about. You know what I'm saying? And when I threw it,

I connected, I just didn't know I knocked them out until I seen this body go stiff. And I was just like, yeah, that's game over. That's match. I think on the broadcast they called it ninja stuff. Tony Kelly was back here. He called it some Mortal Kombat shit. I call it Wakanda style. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.