MMA sells itself as a safe sport for the most part – the days of the “human cockfighting” reputation are now long gone, and one of the UFC’s calling cards during their attempt to gain acceptance was that the sport had far less serious injuries than boxing.
With that said, though, some of the knockouts we’ve seen inside the Octagon have been scary. Genuinely, genuinely scary. So much so that the fighter on the wrong end of a handful of them almost looked like a corpse once they hit the ground.
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All of these fighters recovered, of course, and went on to fight again without any truly serious injuries, but at the time of the knockout, the fans watching – myself included – were usually terrified for their wellbeing.
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Here are five UFC knockouts bad enough to make you think that the loser had actually died inside the Octagon.
#1 Ryan Bader vs. Ilir Latifi – UFC Fight Night 93 – 09/03/16
We begin with a pretty recent one, from the UFC’s 2016 trip to Hamburg, Germany. Coming into this fight, Ryan Bader didn’t exactly have a reputation for exciting fights, despite being somewhat of a knockout puncher in his very early UFC career, as he’d won all of a recent five-fight win streak via decision.
His opponent, Swedish fighter Latifi, had become a popular cult hero with the fans mainly due to an odd charisma, an intimidating physique and some fun finishes over the likes of Sean O’Connell and Cyrille Diabate.
Most fans expected a grappling match coming in, with the big question being whether Latifi could stop Bader’s stifling wrestling game, as he seemed to have an advantage in power standing and Bader’s chin was widely considered questionable due to a string of knockout losses in his past.
To say that idea was wrong would be an understatement.
After a largely even first round, punctuated with a late combination from Latifi that knocked Bader down, the advantage appeared to lie with the Swede going into the second round despite Bader largely outstriking him for the first five minutes. Nobody could’ve seen what would happen next.
After another even two minutes, Latifi decided to change things up and attempted to take the former NCAA Division 1 wrestler down with a double leg. He dived in for the takedown at the exact same moment that Bader threw a huge right knee strike upwards. The irresistible force met the immovable object, which suddenly didn’t seem immovable any more.
Latifi’s body was launched backwards through the air as if Bader had pulled the pin from a grenade and stuffed it into the Swedish fighter’s mouth. He landed unconscious, arms outstretched, and Bader simply walked away, having no need whatsoever to follow the shot up.
Although ‘The Sledgehammer’ came around after a few moments, this was a genuinely frightening knockout. Latifi was unconscious before he hit the ground, and his body looked eerily corpse-like once he did land. Bader’s best knockout? You betcha.
#2 Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Mirko Cro Cop – UFC 70: Nations Collide – 04/21/07
Onwards to a fight that I actually witnessed live as UFC 70 was the first UFC show that I was able to attend. At the time the feeling was that Cro Cop – arguably the UFC’s biggest marquee signing to that point – was a formality to beat Brazilian Gabriel Gonzaga in the main event and go on to face Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Title.
At least, the Croatian fans thought so. A huge contingent of them headed to Manchester, England to watch the fight, basically guaranteeing the former PRIDE star a partisan crowd.
There were some question marks – Gonzaga’s ground game was known to be far superior to Mirko’s, and nobody was really sure how Cro Cop would react to fighting in a cage and taking elbows on the ground, both new to him after a career in PRIDE, but there was no doubt that Cro Cop was the heavy favourite.
Early on, it seemed that those questions would be answered, as a nasty body kick from Cro Cop was caught by Gonzaga, who turned into a takedown. A steady diet of elbows followed for the Croatian as Gonzaga looked content to keep him grounded and work from there.
Referee Herb Dean had other things on his mind, possibly due to the Cro Cop support from the crowd. He called what looked like a premature stand-up and immediately, the crowd were on edge, anticipating the possible deadly head kick from Mirko.
They got half of what they wanted.
As the fighters circled around, Cro Cop looking slightly tentative, Gonzaga suddenly uncorked a right high kick that wrapped over Cro Cop’s shoulder and caught him on the side of the head.
Live, it sounded like a gunshot.
Mirko went down, his right leg twisting underneath him at a disgusting angle, and the follow-up punches Gonzaga landed only knocked him further into the realm of unconsciousness. What everyone saw on TV was a myriad of replays, interspersed with shots of Gonzaga celebrating wildly.
What we saw live was poor Cro Cop being laid into the recovery position and in a scary scene, it was quite some time before he came around. This was a terrifying knockout and remains possibly the greatest head kick KO in UFC history.
#3 Rashad Evans vs. Sean Salmon – UFC Fight Night 8 – 01/25/07
When unbeaten TUF champion Rashad Evans was booked against newcomer Sean Salmon at UFN 8, more than one eyebrow was raised.
Evans was coming off his first UFC knockout, a devastating TKO of fellow top ten fighter Jason Lambert, while Salmon was fresh off the regional scene, seemed more like a 185lber and had never beaten a name opponent.
It looked like a squash on paper and sure enough, Rashad delivered, just not in the way that people were expecting.
Up until this point, Evans was more known as a wrestler who would out-grapple his opponents to a win. While he’d knocked Lambert out, that had been from a flurry of punches from full mount.
Nobody expected him to suddenly uncork one of the most devastating knockouts in UFC history, and even fewer expected it to come from a head kick of all things.
After a tentative first round that saw the fighters mainly feeling each other out on the feet, Evans came out early in the second round and threw a right head kick that landed flush. Salmon’s lights instantly went out and he crashed to the ground, bouncing on the way. Evans even added a right hand for good measure.
Unlike Cro Cop – who did come around after a while in the recovery position – Salmon did not come around in the cage and had to be taken away on a stretcher. Dana White was able to update the fans on his status later that night, explaining that he’d gone to hospital but he was okay.
If Salmon hadn’t been okay, it would hardly have been surprising given the brutality of this knockout.
#4 Renato Sobral vs. David Heath – UFC 74: Respect – 08/26/07
Thus far all of the listed fights ended in knockouts. This one was a bit different in that it ended in a submission. Well, sort-of.
When the booking of Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral and David Heath was announced for UFC 74, it hardly sounded like fireworks. Both men were coming off losses and needed a win to keep their UFC career going, but there wasn’t especially a rivalry.
That was, until the weigh-in.
What exactly happened at the weigh-in has never truly been confirmed. The rumour I heard was that Heath wore a t-shirt depicting Babalu’s mugshot after a recent arrest, a rumour denied by Heath. For his part, Babalu claimed Heath called him “motherfucker”.
Regardless, something nasty was triggered inside the Brazilian’s head.
After a first round dominated by Babalu on the ground from top position, it seemed like Heath was doomed. He couldn’t stop the takedown and he was outclassed on the mat. He probably didn’t realise quite how bad it would get.
A takedown from Babalu opened the second round and this time he began to land elbows, opening a cut bad enough for this fight to appear on lists of the bloodiest fights in MMA history. Heath was indeed wearing the “crimson mask”.
Babalu continued to beat on Heath until he attempted to create a scramble to escape. He gave his neck in the process, and Babalu locked up a picture-perfect anaconda choke. After a moment, Heath tapped out.
Unfortunately for him, Babalu wasn’t done.
Rather than release the hold – even when referee Steve Mazzagatti tried to separate the fighters – Babalu simply bit down on his mouthpiece and squeezed even harder. Kicking his legs like a dying man, Heath twitched and then passed out.
The Brazilian finally released once Heath was unconscious, leaving him laying in a pool of his own blood. This was about as close to a Mortal Kombat-style “fatality” as I can recall in the UFC, but thankfully Heath did recover.
Babalu didn’t even try to deny or make an excuse for what he’d done post-fight, coldly stating that he wanted to teach Heath a lesson. It would be the last time we’d see the Brazilian in the Octagon as he was cut shortly after due to the incident.
#5 Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman – UFC 54: Boiling Point – 08/20/05
We end with a finish so violent that rumours of a fighter death covered up by Zuffa still persisted on internet forums almost ten years after the event.
Tim Sylvia, the former UFC Heavyweight champion, was initially meant to face former PRIDE fighter Assuerio Silva at UFC 54. When Silva pulled out, Tra Telligman – recognisable for his missing right pectoral muscle – stepped in on late notice.
Telligman was giving up six inches of height and almost 30lbs of weight to Sylvia, but he was undeterred.
A veteran dating back to 1995, Telligman had trained with Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den for years and had a PRIDE victory over Igor Vovchanchyn on his record, back when Igor was the most feared Heavyweight on the planet.
Accepting this fight, though, would prove to be a huge mistake.
From the off, it was clear that Telligman was struggling with Sylvia’s height and reach advantage. Big Tim’s striking looked tighter than ever and he was lighting up the veteran, bloodying him up throughout the first round.
When the klaxon sounded to tell the fighters they had ten seconds remaining, it looked like Telligman would escape the first round. Sylvia though had other ideas.
Forcing Telligman back with a long right hand, Sylvia followed up with a left head kick. Although it didn’t have the same finesse as a Cro Cop head kick, Sylvia’s shot landed with as much, if not more force.
Telligman went down on the buzzer, but to suggest he could’ve made it into the second round was laughable. He was out cold, not moving at all, forcing Herb Dean to pull open his mouth and rip out his mouthpiece to stop him from swallowing his tongue.
The veteran was taken out of the Octagon on a spineboard – the second fighter at UFC 54 to do so after Terry Martin in the night’s first prelim – and was literally never heard from again inside the UFC.
That’s probably where the rumours of his death came from. Not long after the knockout, posts on various MMA forums appeared that suggested Telligman had been killed by Sylvia’s kick and the death had been covered up by Zuffa.
Thankfully though that wasn’t the case. Although he never fought again, Tra eventually resurfaced in 2007 as a coach for the Texas Dragons in Chuck Norris’s World Combat League. Still, any knockout that manages to start up such a morbid rumour has to be considered arguably the worst in UFC history.
Think of any other finishes so violent, it looked like the loser had died? Let me know!
Until next time.....
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