The 10 Greatest Comebacks In UFC History

#9 Tim Boetsch vs. Yushin Okami, UFC 144

Tim Boetsch came from two rounds in the hole to KO Yushin Okami

UFC 144 was the first UFC show to hit Japan in years, and Japanese Middleweight Yushin Okami was looking likely to pick up a victory in front of his countrymen. Faced with journeyman Tim Boetsch, longtime title contender Okami had comfortably won the first two rounds of the fight, firstly by using his superior boxing to outstrike Boetsch and then in the second round, easily out grappling him too.

It looked like Boetsch simply had no path to victory, but evidently, he listened to his corner’s advice, which was simply to throw caution to the wind in the third round and risk being finished in an effort to take out Okami first, as a loss was the likely outcome anyway. And so rather than stand at the end of Okami’s jab, Boetsch simply waded through the offense to land some clubbing blows.

Okami was clearly rattled and Boetsch sensed the comeback, landing punches inside before securing a clinch to deliver a series of thudding uppercuts. Suddenly the tide turned, Okami went down and was unable to get back up, and on commentary, Joe Rogan practically had a heart attack over one of the craziest comebacks he’d ever seen – and so Boetsch punched his ticket into the top ten of the division.