5 most explosive moments from UFC Fight Night: Jack Hermansson vs. Sean Strickland

#2. Shavkat Rakhmonov’s spinning kick gives him a win in a battle of prospects

Shavkat Rakhmonov used a flashy spinning kick to take out Carlston Harris.

Of all of the various prospects and rising stars in last night’s undercard, Shavkat Rakhmonov perhaps had the most hype around him. The Kazakh native had a record of 14-0 coming into last night’s bout with Carlston Harris, and had gone 2-0 in the UFC with two finishes.

Last night saw him pick up his third finish inside the octagon. It came in such explosive fashion that it earned him a $50K bonus, and may well push him up towards the top 15 in the welterweight division.

Against the dangerous Harris, Rakhmonov got off with his strikes early, hurting the native of Guyana and forcing him to clinch. However, that didn’t stop ‘Nomad’, as he quickly hit a judo trip to drop Harris on his head, forcing a break.

From there, Rakhmonov decked him out of nowhere with a spinning hook kick to the head. With Harris unable to recover, ‘Nomad’ quickly pounced, and blasted him with punches for the finish.

To say this was impressive would be an understatement. The only knock on Rakhmonov right now is that we don’t know how he’ll fight through adversity. However, it’s difficult not to get excited about a prospect when he’s capable of doing things like this.

Expect the hype train to be fully up to speed next time this exciting fighter steps into the octagon.

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#1. Chidi Njokuani makes a huge splash on his UFC debut

Chidi Njokuani took only 16 seconds to finish Marc-Andre Barriault on his octagon debut.

While Shavkat Rakhmonov’s flashy finish would usually take all the plaudits on a UFC event, last night’s most explosive moment undoubtedly belonged to octagon debutant Chidi Njokuani.

It’s difficult to really label ‘Chidi Bang Bang’ a prospect as such, as he’s already 33, and has been fighting for a long time, most notably in Bellator MMA. However, last night, it looked like he was making up for lost time in terms of how long it has taken him to get to the big show.

His opponent Marc-Andre Barriault had fought in the octagon on six occasions in the past, going 2-3-1, and had never been finished. However, it took Njokuani just 16 seconds to change that.

The Nigerian connected with a jab, and then followed with a right hand haymaker that sent Barriault crashing to the ground. A few more punches followed, and that was that.

This was the second-fastest finish by a middleweight debut in UFC history – behind only Mark Weir’s legendary knockout of Eugene Jackson in 2002. It should propel Njokuani into a main card slot next time around at least.

It also earned ‘Chidi Bang Bang’ a $50K bonus, meaning things couldn’t have gone much better for him.