5 most devastating finishers in the UFC right now

The UFC is filled with exciting fighters. Naturally, the most exciting of them all tend to produce the most explosive and violent finishes inside the octagon.

Right now, the UFC’s roster probably consists of more ruthless finishers than ever before, with a handful of fighters almost guaranteed to produce something special whenever they step into the octagon.

Are these finishers always the best fighters in their division? Sometimes they’re not, but it doesn’t matter. Every time they’re in action, they are well worth watching.

With that considered, here are the 5 most devastating finishers in the UFC today.

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#5. Vicente Luque – UFC welterweight contender

Vicente Luque is a ruthless finisher on the ground and the feet

While Kamaru Usman is undoubtedly the best welterweight operating in the UFC today – he holds the UFC welterweight title, after all – the best finisher in the division is probably Vicente Luque.

‘The Silent Assassin’, who is currently ranked at No.4 in the UFC at 170 pounds, has a highly impressive record inside the octagon of 14-3. However, the most impressive thing about his record is his ludicrous finishing rate.

Of his 14 octagon victories, just one, his victory over Mike Perry in 2019, lasted the distance. Even then, that had more to do with the insane toughness of Perry, who had his nose completely smashed in the bout, than anything Luque did wrong.

The Brazilian is also no one-trick pony when he fights. A dangerous fighter both on the feet and on the ground, Luque has five submissions and eight knockouts on his UFC ledger.

This is very telling of Luque’s willingness to do whatever it takes to finish an opponent. Sure, ‘The Silent Assassin’ has picked up his fair share of first-round stoppages, but he’s also found ways to finish his opponents later into fights too. His 2020 stoppage of Niko Price, for instance, came with little over a minute remaining in the opening round.

Given that Luque’s finishing rate has not dropped as he’s stepped up in competition, most recently taking out Michael Chiesa and Tyron Woodley, it’s definitely fair to say that the Brazilian is one of the most ruthless fighters operating in the UFC today.

#4. Khamzat Chimaev – UFC welterweight contender

Khamzat Chimaev's UFC career may be young, but he's already shown himself to be a brutal finisher

Khamzat Chimaev’s UFC career may only be four fights old, but it’s already fair to say that ‘Borz’ is undoubtedly one of the most devastating finishers currently operating in the promotion.

Probably the fastest-rising fighter on the entire UFC roster, Chimaev has taken out his first four opponents in such nasty fashion that it’s easy to imagine him doing the same to essentially any fighter he steps up against. 2020 saw him dominate both John Phillips and Rhys McKee, taking out both men before the final buzzer and making both look like they didn’t belong in the same octagon as him.

Following this, the Chechen-born Swede pulled off arguably his best finish to date when he stepped up to 185 pounds and stopped Gerald Meerschaert with a one-punch KO in just 17 seconds.

Chimaev then spent over a year on the shelf due to a bad case of COVID-19. Since his return, he’s quickly proven himself no less devastating than he was before. UFC 267 saw him absolutely destroy top-15-ranked welterweight Li Jingliang, submitting him with a rear-naked choke in the first round.

Given that ‘Borz’ won six fights prior to his signing with the UFC, finishing all of his opponents via TKO or submission, it’s fair to say that while he still has a lot to prove, he’s definitely up there with the UFC’s most dangerous finishers.

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#3. Derrick Lewis – UFC heavyweight contender

Derrick Lewis' knockout power is almost unmatched in the UFC

Heavyweight contender Derrick Lewis has admittedly been involved in his fair share of bad fights over the years, but it’s hard to deny him a spot as one of the UFC’s best finishers right now. That’s because Lewis is the UFC’s undisputed knockout king, holding the record for the most KO or TKO stoppages in the promotion’s history with a total of 13.

Essentially, whatever ‘The Black Beast’ hits, he destroys. Once he lands cleanly with his huge hands, a fight tends to be over. Just ask the likes of Chris Daukaus, Alexei Oleinik and Marcin Tybura.

More to the point, Lewis has the rare ability to pull off a violent victory in fights that he’s clearly losing, even ones in which he looks completely outmatched by his opponent.

Curtis Blaydes and Alexander Volkov, most notably, were both having their way with Lewis during their clashes with him, with both men outworking and even hurting ‘The Black Beast’. However, once Lewis was able to connect with a big shot on them, they simply couldn’t cope with his power and quickly found themselves unconscious.

Thanks to this ability, ‘The Black Beast’ is both a devastating finisher and a highly unique one too. You simply can’t count him out of any fight. Therefore, he’s definitely amongst the best finishers in the UFC today.

#2. Charles Oliveira – UFC lightweight champion

Charles Oliveira's striking now seems as dangerous as his submission game

It should probably go without saying that the fighter who has the most submission victories in UFC history under his belt should be considered one of the promotion’s best finishers.

The UFC’s reigning lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira, has a ridiculous 15 tapout victories inside the octagon, with victims ranging from Jim Miller and Kevin Lee to Dustin Poirier and Clay Guida.

However, ‘Do Bronx’ has recently shown some new wrinkles in his game, namely by demonstrating some genuinely nasty knockout power.

The Brazilian didn’t register a single finish by KO or TKO during the first 10 years of his UFC career. That all changed in 2019 when he knocked out Nik Lentz and Jared Gordon with his suddenly heavy hands.

If it was easy to write those fighters off as lower-level opponents, it was impossible to sleep on Oliveira’s striking after he knocked out former Bellator kingpin Michael Chandler to claim UFC gold earlier this year.

Now boasting a total of 18 finishes inside the octagon, no fighter has stopped more opponents than ‘Do Bronx’ in UFC history. With just two victories by decision in his 12-year tenure with the UFC, Oliveira is the definition of a ruthless finisher.

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#1. Francis Ngannou – UFC heavyweight champion

Francis Ngannou's finish of Stipe Miocic was one of the scariest in UFC history

While he doesn’t have as many finishes inside the octagon as Charles Oliveira, probably due to the fact that ‘Do Bronx’ debuted in the UFC some five years before him, it’s hard to dispute the idea that Francis Ngannou is the most devastating finisher in the UFC right now.

Currently the UFC heavyweight champion, ‘The Predator’ is simply a finishing machine when he steps into the octagon. Outside of two exceptions, nobody has been able to survive a fight with him.

Ngannou debuted in the octagon back in December 2015 by knocking out Luis Henrique. Essentially, he’s never looked back. The native of Cameroon has finished a total of 11 opponents during his tenure with the promotion, most of them in genuinely violent fashion.

Heavyweight legends like Alistair Overeem and Andrei Arlovski, as well as former UFC champions like Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, were absolutely destroyed by the brutal punches of Ngannou.

Even his lone submission, a 2016 kimura of Anthony Hamilton, was remarkably savage, as it looked like ‘The Predator’ could’ve torn his foe’s arm off had he chosen to do so.

UFC 260 saw Ngannou claim UFC gold for the first time, as he knocked out Stipe Miocic in trademark fashion, leaving the decorated former champion completely unconscious in a genuinely scary moment.

Essentially, ‘The Predator’ doesn’t seem to know any other way to fight than to destroy his opponents with brutal strikes, making him the UFC’s most violent finisher.