UFC 2016 Awards: Cage Pages Knockout of the Year

There may have been fancier knockouts, but there was nothing as terrifying as this knockout. Glover Teixeira has only ever been finished in his first ever fight. Anthony Johnson walked into the ring and crumpled him in thirteen seconds. You just don’t see that in a title eliminator fight against somebody who’s faced the best of the light heavyweight division. Anthony Johnson is the most terrifying fighter on this planet and that knockout just proved it to the world. Good lord.

Many good choices here, Vanatta KOs Makdessi, Thompson KOs Hendricks or even Miocic KOs Werdum. To me, Bisping knocking the cocky Rockhold out at UFC 199 meant the most. Rockhold walking to the cage with an almost bored demeanor to take on a short notice Bisping. During the fight Rockhold looking bored until BAM Bisping lands the punch of a lifetime and then bounces Rockhold’s head off the cage repeatedly. YEARS of losing to PED users and being denied title shots, getting so close only to fall at the last second and then coming through. 10+ years of blood sweat and tears and one of the best in the UFC finally gets his due.

Groovy Lando Vannata’s is close, but I give it to Johnson for the amount of sheer terror he inflicted upon everyone watching. That was the fiercest uppercut I’ve ever seen, and he messed Glover up so bad when he came-to he started wrestling the ref, thinking the fight was still going on. If you put it in slow motion, you can see the tooth flying out of Glover’s mouth as well.

The wheel kick from “Groovy” at 1:40 of the first round was as pretty a knockout as you’ll see in the UFC. Coming off of an impressive debut against Tony Ferguson, the 24-year-old has a two fight bonuses under his belt in as many bouts. If his KO of Makdessi is any indicator, they won’t be his last.

Simply a beautiful technique that he set up perfectly. Plenty of knockouts in higher stake bouts in 2016, but the degree of difficulty on the move gives it knockout of the year in my opinion.

One dramatic knockout and England got its first UFC champion.

The win that broke Cleveland’s championship curse. Finishing Fabricio Werdum with exactly 2:16 on the clock (216 is Cleveland’s area code), was the perfect way for the Ohio native to take the heavyweight crown.

Lombard was thought to be the clear favorite, but a strange back elbow to the temple sent him crashing to the canvas completely limp and out cold.

Wheel kicks are rare in MMA and Lando Vannata landed one clean on John Makdessi’s chin for the knockout and the Performance of the Night 90 seconds into the first round.

Wheel kicks are awesome.

Just go watch it.

The timing and connection of this flying knee knockout could not have been crisper. As Lahat attempted an overhand right, Rivas leaped off the ground covering a lot of distance to land a picture-perfect flying knee on the chin of Lahat. Beautiful stuff.

It was just a single uppercut.

Just an insane kick.

“Edson Barboza Jr. Jr.” by Spinning-Death Jutsu.

That kick was ridiculous.

Can I do a tie here? Because both of my favorite knockouts from the year that was were equally impressive. One from the UFC, and the other from the regional scene. First, “Groovy” Lando Vannata lighting up John Makdessi with the spinning heel kick was absolutely picture perfect. Even better was his poise to complete the walk-off KO, following a sexy side kick set-up might I add, and acting as if he had drawn it up from the get-go. Not to be outdone, Gerald Harris slam KO’d Aaron Cobb just a few weeks prior at Legacy 63. Perhaps the only thing better than that wicked takedown was Michael Schiavello’s call of the 43-second masterpiece. “Good-night freakin’ Irene”, indeed.

I may be biased because it’s another fight I got to watch live, but Vannata vs. Makdessi was one of those moments when you realize anything really can happen in MMA. After a great effort against Ferguson, it marked the arrival of Vannata.

This kick was straight out of an old Japanese martial arts movie. The jumping switch kick is such an awesome looking and rarely used technique, because it rarely works to perfection like this. I think the last time I saw a jumping switch kick KO was Raymond Daniels’ insane one in GLORY kickboxing, but of course, that’s not MMA. What separates this from Paige VanZant’s similar KO over Bec Rawlings is that Yair didn’t whiff 20 times with his prior to connecting.