Discussing Ken Shamrock’s recent loss history inspired us to dig up the video of his first-round loss to Kazushi Sakuraba, which went down at PRIDE 30 in October 2005. And watching the video reminded us of something we love/hate about Ken — his constant protest of early stoppages. Dude, maybe the refs wouldn’t step in so often if you could get hit without looking like you’ve lost consciousness. It’s a tough skill to learn, but an important one nonetheless.

Jason “The Punisher” Lambert — who takes on Wilson Gouveia on Saturday night — hasn’t fought since UFC 68 (3/3/07), but he proved himself to be a fighter of incredible heart during that match. Lambert was in big trouble during the first round, as Renato “Babalu” Sobral took his back and tried to sink in one of his infamous choke holds. But Lambert was able to defend the submission attempts and escape, and rocked Sobral with a couple of big punches when the fight went standing. Energized by his near-death, Lambert came out bashing in the second round, working Sobral over with ground-and-pound until Big John McCarthy stood the fighters up — which turned out to be the end for Babalu.

Okay, so Tommy Speer’s next opponent isn’t a total can. In fact, Anthony Johnson looked pretty damn promising in his Octagon debut at Ultimate Fight Night 10 (6/12/07), disposing of Chad Reiner with a 13-second knockout that should have made it onto our list. Reiner left the UFC directly after this fight and has since gone 3-0 in smaller shows.

How does a guy with only a 4-1 MMA record find himself ranked #6 on MMA Weekly’s list of the best current light heavyweights? Simple: When he’s Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, a judo champion and Team Quest member whose last two fights resulted in quick knockouts of MMA superstars Ricardo Arona and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. This bout against Arona went down in April of this year; “The African Assassin” is scheduled to make his UFC debut next month at UFC 79 against Lyoto Machida (11-0), who has scored wins over Rich Franklin, Stephan Bonnar, and B.J. Penn. Should be a real corker.

Ultimate Ultimate Knockouts, a DVD collection of the all-time greatest K.O.’s in UFC history, hit stores today. Among the fighters featured are Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski, Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, but the most frightening knockout on the disc comes from David “Tank” Abbott’s jaw-dropping debut against John Matua at UFC 6. Looking at Matua — a 400-pound beast who, as Michael Buffer manages to say with a straight face, is “a practitioner of Kuialua, the brutal Hawaiian art of bone-breaking” — you’d think he’d be the favorite against the beer-bellied Abbott. But Abbott makes his presence known immediately, punching Matua so hard that he ends up in an Awakenings-style paralysis, and then mocking him for it.

These days, Tank Abbott is seen as a relic of simpler times, when strikers couldn’t be bothered with learning how to grapple. He’s lost seven of his last nine fights (including once to Frank Mir). But on that night…he was brilliant.

In the headlining match at yesterday’s K-1 HERO’s Korea event in Seoul, Yoshihiro Akiyama proved that he had no ring rust from his 10-month lubrication-related suspension. Though he was generally considered an underdog in his matchup against Denis Kang — an American Top Team member who had gone 20-1-1 with one no contest in his last 23 fights — Akiyama looked razor-sharp once he settled in, busting Kang’s nose with a jab and stalking his opponent until he connected with a right uppercut that put Kang’s lights out. Check out 6:22-6:24 — that nose isn’t so much broken as exploded.