Top 5 UFC knockouts of the decade (2010-2019)

#2 Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, UFC 126 – 02/05/2011

Anderson Silva's knockout of Vitor Belfort popularised the front kick for the entire decade

Anderson Silva’s legendary UFC Middleweight title reign – which lasted from October 2006 all the way through to July 2013 – was filled with the kind of fights that made people’s heads spin, and for various reasons, too. He thrilled and awed against Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson and Chael Sonnen, but he also bored people to tears in his dull fights with Demian Maia and Thales Leites.

His most special moment though, without a shadow of a doubt, came in his 2011 title defense against fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort. It was a fight that had been built for some time, and asked a single question: could the ultra-fast hands and boxing style of ‘The Phenom’ be the correct combination to finally defeat ‘The Spider’, who had already reeled off 12 straight UFC wins?

The answer, emphatically, was no, but Silva went one step beyond in this fight, treating everyone to a jaw-dropping knockout. After a long feeling out process, the two fighters began to attack a little more – and out of nowhere, Silva stunned everyone by hitting Belfort with a front kick to the jaw, knocking him down. Some punches on the ground sealed the win, but it was the kick that had done the damage.

Nobody could really believe their eyes, largely because nobody had ever been knocked out with a front kick before. Of course, the finish opened the floodgates; the front kick became a major weapon and fighters ranging from Lyoto Machida to Alistair Overeem and Magomed Ankalaev have now finished opponents with it, but at the time, this was Matrix-level stuff, and changed the way that everyone viewed the move for good.