THE 2012 KNOCKOUT OF THE YEAR

To coincide with the MMAFighting.com end of the year articles, I wanna make some end-of-the-year threads.


Here's the 2012 fight of the year thread.


And now for the 2012 knockout of the year.


10. 

Beautiful headkick by Cruickshank, just perfectly placed. Martinez fell like a sack of potatoes. I love how Cruickshank doesn't bother pouncing, he just raises his hands knowing that it's all over.

9. 

What an amazing punch, Thiago just ran into it and caught the punch full force. Siyar going back to Thiago's dead body to stand over it with his hands raised was very ******y but very badass at the same time, and it made for an awesome picture to boot. 
8.
When the Wonderboy hype train began. With reason. A lead leg headkick, that is just ridiculous. ******* absurd, no one could've seen that coming. That corkscrew flip that he does after is so ******* SICK too. It's a shame that Matt Brown had to expose Wonderboy for who he really is, some Karateka with a bunch of wins against nobodies and a useless black belt in Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, along with the worst wrestling defense ever displayed in Octagon history. Nice.

7.

Johny Hendricks' power makes professionally trained grown men fly. That is ridiculous. Once again, Johny Hendricks shows us his dangerous left hand, arguably the scariest strike in MMA today.

6. 

What a sick, disgusting display of refereeing. This fight should've been stopped a lot earlier but instead Joe Warren ends up being on the wrong end of the most vicious against-the-cage beatdown ever. Curran used uppercuts to fold the Baddest Man on the Planet into a chair.

Still one of the most awesome things I've ever seen in MMA.
5. 

Perfect knee and with one second left in the round, Aldo retains his championship in the only title fight on this list. This knockout will be remembered because of what happened after, with Aldo celebrating with the Brazilian crowd. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, wow.

4.


A spinning back heel kick. Wow. Enough said. This could easily be number one, it just depends on personal preference. Amazing performance by Barboza.

3. 

What a disturbing, vicious knockout. Denis elbows Sandoval unconscious from a Muay Thai clinch, it's so painful to watch a guy collapse from such a dangerous barrage. Again, this could be number one it really just depends on what you look for in knockouts.

2. 

The most unexpected KO of the year, Cung Le just ends Rich Franklin's night and possibly his career as well. An amazing upset and the way Rich Franklin collapses is awful and awesome at the same time. Again, can also be number one.

1. 

The least popular pick for KO of the year, mostly because not many people knew about this fight happening. It was on the prelims of a Bellator card for ****'s sake. This KO has a little bit of everything. It was something I've never seen before, it was an upset (only 26% of Tapology picked Mathews to win) there was a freaking sick kick thrown, the guy who ate the shot went completely limp and the post-knockout celebration was ******* awesome. Mathews is just staring at Rader's limp body before breaking down and crying out of joy. I love it, it's a shame that this knockout didn't get as much publicity as it deserved.

What are your knockouts of the year?

* Edited at 12.22.2012, 10:00 PM ET *

My top ten. There were so many good ones this year that it's hard to compile just a top ten, my list goes to 15.

After 10, I have Khabilov/Pichel at 11, Siyar/Thiago at 12, Lawler/Amagov at 13, Zoro/Huerta at 14, and Boetsch/Okami at 15.

Those are some nice gifs, good memories.  I had not seen that Matthews KO before, holy hell.  My favorites are Barboza's insane kick and Denis's elbows.

Here is mine, really hard to rank 1-10 since they all were amazing...

@anik, sick top 10 list I missed your #1 pick when it happend.

Here's mine.  Great OP @Anik.

Hard list to make, there were so many great ones this year but here is mine.

 

 

 

Just realized I'm missing Le vs. Franklin.  Going to have to remedy that.  Question is, who to take off.

* Edited at 12.24.2012, 12:54 AM ET *

@OldManGloom. Nice list. This is just me, but I think Le/Franklin beats Cofe/Lawrence or Alvarez/Aoki. 

Hard to go against Barboza KO. All KO's are beautiful, so hard to pick.

Very nice list.  I hadn't seen the #1 KO.  That was beautiful and brutal at the same time.

Hard not to argue for Barboza at number 1, but that Matthews knockout is pretty sick. I hadn't seen it either until just now.

* Edited at 01.04.2013, 11:43 AM ET *

Very happy that AJ Matthews' KO is finally getting the attention it deserves.