Ranking the 13 most vicious knockout artists in the UFC right now

The finish is the most entertaining aspect of MMA, and the knockout is particularly special in the eyes of fans. Let’s take a look at the 13 best knockout artists in the UFC, including UFC Auckland main event stars Mark Hunt and Derrick Lewis.

Before Cody Garbrandt, John Lineker was the power puncher of the lighter weight divisions. Lineker started his career at flyweight but struggled to make 125 consistently enough to earn a title shot, even though he had KOed four opponents in a two-year time frame.

Lineker has taken his power to the bantamweight division, where he’s secured a “Performance of the Night” knockout of Michael McDonald, won a thrilling wars against Francisco Rivera and John Dodson.

Outside of a tough stretch between 2014 and 2015 where he lost two of three fights to Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony Johnson, Manuwa has been an absolute killer inside the Octagon. He brutalized his opponents en route to TKOs in his first three UFC wins and he’s stiffened his last two foes with crippling right hooks.

Josh Koscheck might have had the worst 2013 of any fighter. The former “Ultimate Fighter” competitor suffered not one but two “Knockout of the Night” losses that year, once to the aforementioned Lawler and another to current welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.

The right hand that Woodley hit Koscheck with has also KOed the likes of Lawler and Dong Hyun Kim.

In five UFC fights, Francis Ngannou has just 22 minutes and 5 seconds of fight time. And he’s spent that entire time making opponents regret stepping into the Octagon with him.

Ngannou opened his UFC career with a perfect 4-0 record will all of those wins by finish, but it was his first-round stoppage of former champion Andrei Arlovski that really made fans stop and take notice.

“KO or be KOed” should be the motto every time heavyweight Derrick Lewis steps into the Octagon as 10 of his 11 UFC fights have ended with a KO/TKO and it’s typically the referee peeling Lewis off his opponent.

Lewis has finished the likes of Travis Browne, Ruan Potts and Gabriel Gonzaga and joins Ngannou in a class of scary, up-and-coming heavyweights.

Glover Teixeira is a huge Mike Tyson fan and it’s evident in the way he handles business in the Octagon. The heavy handed light heavyweight has folded elite fighters like Rashad Evans and Ryan Bader and many of his seven submission wins have resulted from his devastating abilities on the feet.

Who said the lighter weight guys can’t get knockouts? Garbrandt burst on the scene in 2015 and has knocking opponents out ever since.

He scored a nice third-round KO of Marcus Brimage in his debut, then scored a dominant unanimous decision before reeling off first-round knockouts of Augusto Mendes, then-undefeated Thomas Almeida and Takeya Mizugaki.

He wasn’t able to finish Dominick Cruz over five rounds but he dropped the former champ twice in a breakthrough performance.

For a long time Cris Cyborg stood head and shoulders above her female competitors in regards to her striking abilites, but it appears that time is over with the emergence of Amanda Nunes.

Fans knew Nunes was special after she made quick work of Julia Budd in her Strikeforce debut, and as she rose through the ranks, the KOs didn’t stop. She’s finished four of five opponents since the beginning of 2015. Her two submissions during that span were set up with her powerful right hand and could have been TKOs had she kept punching.

Stipe Miocic has quietly risen in the ranks of KO artists after an incredible 2016 where he finished some of the greatest UFC heavyweights of all time.

Miocic flatlined Arlovski last January to earn a title shot and knocked out Fabricio Werdum while moving backwards at UFC 198. Before then, he’d TKOed Mark Hunt and turned Fabio Maldonado’s lights out.

Miocic has likely overtaken Cain Velasquez as the most dangerous heavyweight on the roster.

Conor McGregor has been to the judges just twice in his UFC career, outside of that -- and his submission loss to Nate Diaz -- he’s spent his time bouncing his opponent’s heads off the canvas.

If fans weren’t convinced that McGregor was one of the most lethal finishers during his first six fights in the UFC, where he scored five wins by KO/TKO, his 13 second knockout of Jose Aldo in 2015 probably did the trick.

Some of Robbie Lawler’s best UFC performances have been epic slugfests that have ended in decisions (see: Hendricks vs. Lawler 1, Lawler vs. Hendricks 2, MacDonald vs. Lawler 1, Lawler vs. MacDonald 2, Lawler vs. Condit), so it’s easy to forget 20 of his 27 professional wins have come by way of brutal, devastating KO/TKO.

Hunt, like Nelson, is a prolific knockout artist who isn’t too keen on letting the fight go to the judges. “The Super Samoan” also has wins over “Bigfoot” Silva and Cheick Kongo, but he managed to come out victorious in his slugfest against Nelson.

Fun fact about Mark Hunt: He’s never landed more than 47 significant strikes in any of his UFC wins, proving just how effective the heavyweight’s striking can be when he’s on his game.

Cris Cyborg is one of the most devastating finishers on the roster, man or woman, and has shown an incredible ability to put opponents away early in fights.

Cyborg hasn’t been to the judges in nearly a decade and has only been past the first round five times since then.