5 most devastating finishers in the UFC right now

#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.