5 cool UFC finishes you've probably forgotten

Back in the early days of the TUF boom that turned the UFC from a money-leaking, failing promotion into the juggernaut it is today, we got maybe twelve or thirteen shows a year at best.

All of that has changed now – 41 shows a year seems to be the norm – and so the sheer amount of fights put on by the promotion per year, means that ones that you’d expect to be memorable are quickly forgotten, eclipsed by the next big fight or flashy finish.

The TUF boom began in 2005 and we’re now in 2017, which means that literally hundreds of fights and hundreds of finishes have probably been forgotten over the period of twelve years in between.

Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more

Some of them would be understandably forgettable, but some of those finishes belong on highlight reels even today and just don’t get the love they deserve, whether it’s because the fighters that delivered them weren’t big names, to begin with, or they’ve been cut by the UFC and are now a hazy memory.

With the wonders of Fight Pass making the whole UFC archive available for anyone to watch, it should be easy for fans to track these down. Here are five unspeakably cool UFC finishes that you’ve probably forgotten.

#5 James Irvin vs. Houston Alexander – UFC Fight Night 13 – 04/02/08

When the UFC booked this fight for their return to Colorado – the birthplace of the promotion – despite neither man being on the best run at the time, a slugfest was expected.

Alexander had exploded onto the UFC scene with a pair of violent knockouts over Keith Jardine and Alessio Sakara before Thiago Silva had derailed his hype train by dummying him on the ground en route to a TKO. Irvin, meanwhile, had perhaps the weirdest 2007 of anyone on the roster.

He’d lost to the aforementioned Silva due to a knee injury and had then beaten Luiz Cane by disqualification after he was knocked out by an illegal knee.

It seemed like a no-brainer to match the two against one another – both were seen largely as one-dimensional strikers with incredible power in their strikes, but not the best chins to go with that power. A pair of glass cannons, if you will. The likelihood of a knockout was extremely high.

The Colorado fans didn’t have to wait long to see one. Just eight seconds into the first round, literally after the customary touch of gloves, Irvin clocked Alexander with a clean superman punch, dropping him to the ground. One follow-up punch missed its target but the second landed flush on Alexander’s chin, stiffening him up and forcing the referee to stop the fight.

Post-fight Alexander tried to claim an early stoppage. He said he was never unconscious, despite replays confirming that he was clearly out cold following the second punch. Irvin for his part simply said he’d be willing to fight Houston again – in the parking lot if he needed to.

The finish has since been eclipsed by a superior superman punch from Travis Browne, but it’s still one of the best knockouts I’ve ever seen purely for the speed of it. At the time, this tied the fastest official knockout in UFC history. As it’s only eight seconds long there’s no excuse for not checking it out!

#4 Pablo Garza vs. Yves Jabouin – UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields – 04/30/11

The UFC’s debut in Toronto, UFC 129 was one of the most loaded cards in MMA history. Two title fights; Georges St-Pierre vs. Jake Shields and Jose Aldo vs. Mark Hominick – were headlining the show, while Randy Couture vs. Lyoto Machida was only billed third.

Featured elsewhere were names such as Rory MacDonald, Nate Diaz, Benson Henderson and Jake Ellenberger. It’s easy to understand why a prelim featuring WEC imports Pablo Garza and Yves Jabouin wasn’t receiving much fanfare.

This was Canadian fighter Jabouin’s UFC debut and while Garza had actually delivered another highlight-reel finish a few months prior in his debut – a flying knee KO of Fredson Paixao that left the Brazilian leaving on a stretcher – my guess was that Zuffa was looking to hand Jabouin a home-country win.

After all, he’d gone toe-to-toe in the WEC with top contenders like Hominick and Raphael Assuncao, while Garza had failed to even qualify for TUF 12.

The fight began as the Canadian fans were expecting. Jabouin was at a reach disadvantage against the lanky Garza but it didn’t seem to matter as he went to work with leg kicks, taking Garza off his feet on two occasions and knocking his mouthpiece out with a punch. It was clear that Garza was painfully outgunned on the feet, and so ‘The Scarecrow’ decided to switch things up.

Rather than shoot in for a takedown on his shorter opponent, Garza went instead for a clinch, and from there he leapt into the air, threw his legs up into position and slapped on an ultra-rare flying triangle choke. Jabouin dropped to the ground, still trapped in the hold, and after a few elbows to the head from Garza he was forced to tap out.

For me, this would’ve been the best submission of 2011, had it not been for the Korean Zombie’s legendary twister just over a month beforehand. Garza never did go on to anything great – in fact, he was involved in the antitrust lawsuit against the UFC in 2014 – but nobody can take this amazing submission win away from him.

#3 Jake Hecht vs. Rich Attonito – UFC 140: Jones vs. Machida – 12/10/11

This fight wasn’t even supposed to happen (UFC.com)

The UFC’s second show in Toronto, UFC 140 was another loaded card with a triple main event of Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida, Frank Mir vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tito Ortiz vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Like with the previously mentioned Garza/Jabouin fight, nobody was really anticipating the prelim fight between TUF veteran Rich Attonito and newcomer Jake Hecht.

In fact, the fight was never originally booked on the card. Attonito was supposed to fight Claude Patrick, but when Rory MacDonald dropped out of his scheduled fight with Brian Ebersole, Patrick moved up the card and Hecht stepped in on late notice.

Coming out of Matt Hughes’s old camp in Illinois, Hecht had a record of 7-2 but was largely unknown. He was a firm underdog against Attonito, who had won three of four fights in the UFC.

Evidently, Hecht didn’t care about the odds. A takedown and some ground control – albeit not with too much damage – won the first round for Attonito and things seemed to be going according to plan for him. In the second round, though, Hecht changed things up. Big time.

Attonito again went for the takedown but this time Hecht was able to defend, getting his back to the cage and jockeying for under hooks. As Attonito dropped even lower to attempt a double leg, Hecht made his move, landing a vicious series of elbows to the side of Attonito’s head that caused his legs to buckle.

The TUF veteran went down and Hecht quickly sealed the deal with some punches. The announcers marvelled as it was the first time they’d ever seen such a finish, although Hecht mentioned a past opponent – fellow UFCer Che Mills – had tried the same tactic on him when they’d fought.

At the time, after such a unique finish, it was expected that Hecht might go on to big things in the UFC, but it never happened. He lost his next two fights and was released from the promotion.

Just under two years later, Travis Browne used the same series of elbows in two fights, knocking out both Gabriel Gonzaga and Josh Barnett. A bigger stage and against better opponents, admittedly, but I find it unfair that such a cool finish has since been attributed to Browne when in fact, Jake Hecht was the man to innovate it inside the UFC Octagon!

#2 Nick Denis vs. Joseph Sandoval – UFC on FX 1 – 01/20/12

When the UFC’s television deal with Fox kicked in at the beginning of 2012, the number of shows the promotion put on increased dramatically. Due to this increase, more roster spots became available and so several newcomers were brought into the fold.

Two of these newcomers were Canadian Nick Denis and Texan Joseph Sandoval. This was 2012’s second UFC show; Denis was making his debut, Sandoval his second UFC appearance.

Despite being the UFC’s first show on FX, the card was a weak one in terms of name value and so it wasn’t like Denis vs. Sandoval was being especially overshadowed by anything else on show.

It would take something genuinely special to make a fight like Denis/Sandoval memorable and sure enough, Nick Denis delivered in spades.

The first round began and right away Denis was on the attack, clipping Sandoval with a combination. From there he grabbed a plum clinch, and rather than deliver some knees as is the norm from that position, Denis reared his right arm back and suddenly hit Sandoval with a series of vicious elbow strikes to the side of the head.

Sandoval appeared to go out while he was still being kept upright by Denis’s clinch, and then crashed to the ground when he was released from the grip. A truly unbelievable knockout.

Denis would go on to have one more fight with the UFC where he lost to TUF 14’s Roland Delorme via rear naked choke and then retired due to fears surrounding concussions. His lone UFC knockout appears to have been completely forgotten five years on, which is just plain wrong in my eyes.

Check it out and I’m sure you’ll agree with me – this was one of the best knockouts in UFC history.

#1 Kenny Robertson vs. Brock Jardine – UFC 57: Rousey vs. Carmouche – 02/23/13

From one of the best knockouts in UFC history to one of the best submissions.

Kenny Robertson has rarely been in entertaining fights in his UFC tenure and he’s rarely delivered memorable finishes, but here he was somehow able to pull out something genuinely special. He was coming into this fight off back-to-back losses, while opponent Jardine had lost his UFC debut to Rick Story.

The fight seemed like a coin flip to most observers.

There aren’t many cooler types of submission than leglocks – something about them always seems more violent than armlocks or chokes. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that a heel hook or knee bar can suddenly cause serious damage to a limb in a way that a kimura or armbar doesn’t usually do.

Either way, they’re definitely cool. And not only was the leglock that Robertson used to submit Jardine cool, but it was thoroughly unique, at least in the UFC.

After an early takedown and a guillotine attempt from Jardine, Robertson was able to pass the guard and found himself in side mount. After a brief scramble, he took Jardine’s back and slapped both of his hooks in.

A rear naked choke attempt did not work for Robertson and so as Jardine moved into a kneeling position with Robertson still clamped onto his back, Kenny moved higher up – usually a no-no as it allows the defending fighter to escape through the back door.

There would be no escape for Brock Jardine here. Robertson instead reached down and clasped hold of Jardine’s left leg, and then pulled it forward, while at the same time forcing his hips and body backwards using his own legs as hooks.

After a few moments, Jardine was in agony and tapped out. The announcers called the move a kneebar, but it was in fact something much more painful-sounding – a hamstring stretcher.

Nothing like this move had been seen in the UFC before and unlike other initially unique moves – see the front kick to the face popularised by Anderson Silva, or the wheel kick introduced by Edson Barboza – it’s never been seen again, to the best of my knowledge.

While he may have been involved in a number of dull fights, this will always be the top highlight reel moment for Kenny Robertson and it belongs firmly on the list of greatest UFC finishes.