(Hall vs. McDaniel. Props: Dylan95P)

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for — the public execution of our least favorite TUF 17 castmember. In case you missed last night’s episode of the show, Bubba McDaniel did everything he could to get out of the match. It had already been apparent that Bubba wasn’t mentally prepared to face Uriah Hall, and he also began complaining of exhaustion and pain in his back. Sadly, the doctor cleared Bubba to compete, and he became a quick meal for the show’s front-runner.

The nine-second knockout had onlookers speaking of Hall in lofty terms. “This guy is the nastiest guy in Ultimate Fighter history,” said UFC president Dana White. Chael Sonnen even called him a contender for the middleweight title. Hmm. That might be the case, but when Hall officially makes it to the UFC, he’ll eventually have to face guys who aren’t terrified of being in the cage with him.

Uriah will compete again in next week’s semifinals episode, where he’ll face Dylan Andrews, who TKO’d Luke Barnatt last week. On the other side of the bracket, 21-year-old prodigy Kelvin Gastelum will go heads-up against Josh Samman, who finished Jimmy Quinlan in last night’s episode. You can check out highlights from that scrap after the jump.

Regardless of how you feel about Casey “Glorious Ball Tickler of Absolute Douchiness” Oxendine, it’s hard to deny that he and co-host Cyrus Fees are doing a fantastic job bringing mainstream audiences the best in small promotion fight news over at MMA: Inside the Cage. Specifically, bringing us knockout videos from local promotions spanning across damn near every continent on this planet (for some reason, Antarctica’s Igloo Fighting Championship has yet to truly take off). While these knockouts are often sporadically placed throughout each episode, every now and again we are treated to an entire episode devoted to the knockout videos fans of the show have sent in from around the world.

So to honor Inside the Cage’s third collection of 100 epic knockouts, we’ve thrown the full video of episode #132 above for you to enjoy. Featuring more falling tree, lawn chair, and King slow-Mo knockouts than you can shake a stick at, episode #132 is destined to reside in the bowels of MMA culture until at least Wednesday, so check it out and let us know which knockout you think took the cake.

-J. Jones

(It’s never a good sign when the crowd actually *laughs* during the glove-touch. Props: crazycnote13 via MiddleEasy)

Former MMA superstar Kimbo Slice improved his pro boxing record to 6-0 (5 KOs) with a very quick knockout of Howard Jones, a Missouri-based “journeyman” who came into the match on a four-fight losing streak. Is it just me, or is Jones a dead ringer for Worst Fighters in UFC History nominee Greg “Ranger” Stott? (Maybe I’m just a racist bastard who thinks all pudgy white guys look the same. That’s certainly a possibility.)

The fight, which went down Saturday night at the Buffalo Run Casino in Miami, Oklahoma — which was also the site of Slice’s previous boxing wins over James Wade and Charles Hackmann — was essentially decided by just two punches. First, Kimbo lands a sharp left hook to the gut that forces Jones to take a knee. Shortly after, Kimbo lands an uppercut that convinces Jones to play dead until the ref finishes his ten-count.

Let’s just say that Kimbo will face quite the jump in competition if he actually fights Roy Jones Jr. in December. Up until now, Kimbo has played the role of the Kiai master, laying out his poor students with energy-bullets. I can’t wait to see what happens when he finally steps into the ring against an actual boxer.

(No, no, not THAT kind of ultimate fighter.) 

Seven years. Fifteen seasons. The Ultimate Fighter has been a part of our lives for nearly a decade, ladies and gentlemen, and not only is it still going strong, but it has spread at the rate of your average zombie apocalypse. With the first international installment of the hit reality show already under way, TUF has seemingly evolved beyond its counterparts, transcending even that of the sport in it’s ability to excite, and often inspire its audience. Sure, the next season of Jersey Shore will feature a piss drunk pregnant woman and a possible probable cokehead and will therefore rule the ratings from here to eternity, but The Ultimate Fighter has something better to bring to the table than fabricated drama. Mainly, sweet ass knockouts.

Seven years of sweet ass knockouts, to be precise. That’s the entire length of Tommy Callahan’s college career.

With these knockouts, we’ve seen underdogs pull off upsets, loudmouths get their comeuppance, and the emergence of future superstars. So in honor of what has already been a KO-ridden season of TUF, we decided to watch every season back to back, and determine the BEST knockout from its respective season. Enjoy.

There’s nothing we love more than unregulated MMA shows held in parking lots. This lost classic comes from a "Rumble at the River" event that went down somewhere in Minnesota in August 2007. We don’t know who the competitors are; we just know that one is a welterweight and the other is a bantamweight with a peace-sign tattoo on his arm and shaky striking defense. (Try to guess which one is snoozing on the mat nine seconds after the fight starts.) By the way, it took the paramedic so long to get over to the downed fighter because she had to change out of her ring girl uniform first.

After the jump: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson makes an appearance in a slick new Nike commercial that will be running this evening during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Okay, so maybe his scene has an unfortunate pro-wrestling vibe to it. (What exactly was his opponent doing when Quinton was stretched out on the canvas? Blowing kisses from the turnbuckle?) But goddamnit if ‘Page didn’t get up and deliver the death-blow to that generically tattooed cage-fighter. Cheesy or not, you gotta be psyched to see something like this in a high-profile mainstream ad…

Fighter Knocked Out by Brutal High Kick – Watch more Funny Videos

It takes about fifty seconds for this Sambo match to get started, but once it gets underway it isn’t long before someone catches the old head kick express bound straight for Concussionville.  Once there he’ll be greeted by Mayor Memory Loss and the fine gentleman from the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Brainbleeding.  Come, let them take you on a tour of the town, from the Vertigo River to the Migraine district.  Okay, this flight of fancy has officially gone too far, but I could only stare at the computer screen trying to come up with a Yakov Smirnoff Soviet Russia joke for so long before something in me just snapped. 

The point is, they don’t play around in Sambo.  Not only do you get dropped on a hard surface after your brutal head kick KO, you wake up to the sound of polite applause while some guy holds your feet in the air.  I think I’ll stick with grappling tournaments, thanks. 

This video from MMA4Today is entitled "MMA Is Not Enough," but it could just as easily be called "The Agony of Defeat."  It’s basically four-and-a-half minutes of the saddest, most vulnerable moments in the lives of some of the sport’s best fighters.  Remember that Sesame Street video "Everybody Sleeps"?  Think of this as the MMA version: Everybody Loses.  Except Fedor.  For the purposes of this analogy, he’s the shark of the MMA world.

After the jump, another boxing knockout, plus Tiki Ghosn gets tough with Rashad Evans in an "Ultimate Fighter" scene from the cutting room floor.

(Props: caposa3)

MMA compilation-video specialist "Caposa" has just released the fourth installment of a series featuring the year’s most memorable knockouts and submissions in North America. He also has a separate series devoted to Japanese MMA; you can see that, as well as parts 1-3 of this series, by clicking here. And if you do delve deeper into his work, you’ll notice that Caposa favors understated ambient music to soundtrack his vids, adding a soothing counterpoint to the visual brutality. Great stuff. This guy just might join the ranks of such MMA highlight reel legends as GenghisCon and me.

(Props: youtube.com/BellatorMMA)

Bellator’s inaugural season came to a close on Friday night, with the finals of their middleweight and lightweight brackets. In the 185-pound title fight, Hector Lombard used his striking and ground-and-pound to open up some nasty cuts on the head of his opponent, Jared Hess; the fight was eventually stopped in the fourth round after Hess lost a few gallons of blood. Directly after, 155-pound favorite Eddie Alvarez completed his sweep of the lightweight tourney by knocking Toby Imada out of his jock with a big right hook early in the second round, then sinking in a rear-naked choke. Lombard and Alvarez collected $100,000 checks for their efforts.

In non-tournament action, Jorge Masvidal submitted Eric Reynolds via third-round rear-naked choke, Bodog/ShoXC vet Rosi Sexton submitted Valerie Coolbaugh via first-round armbar, and Stephanie Guimaraes became Bellator’s latest YouTube star with her 49-second knee-knockout of Yvonne Reis. The Guimaraes knockout is above; highlights from the Lombard/Hess and Alvarez/Imada fights are after the jump.

(Props: fightface.blogspot.com)

It’s the start of another month, which means it’s time to check out the latest highlight reel from Facey. The March ’09 edition features Matt Hamill‘s thunderous head-kick KO of Mark Munoz, David Gardner‘s "Hello Japan!" epic fail, Shane Carwin‘s triumph over Gabriel Gonzaga (watch the inset to see proof that Carwin’s victims always fall into an Indian-style sitting position), Jose Aldo‘s latest destruction, King Mo body-slamming another Asian, the Jackson/Jardine war, Mike Brown’s first title defense, and more. Great stuff, as always.

Below: lookoutawhale‘s new installment of the "Riddum Revenge" series, a short but sweet tribute to George St. Pierre’s superman punch.

(Props: TheGarv)

If you missed the UFC’s video tribute to Charles "Mask" Lewis during UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann, check it out after the jump.

#3: Joey Villasenor vs. Hank Weiss @ King of the Cage: New Mexico (8/28/04), 5 seconds

We don’t know if Joey Villasenor had been studying tape on Hank Weiss, but Good Lord did Smokin’ Joe have his number. As soon as Weiss makes the grave mistake of dropping his hands while setting up his first attack, Villasenor is right there with the left hook (perfectly directed at Weiss’s knockout button) and the follow-up right straight (which missed, likely saving his life). And just like that, another beautiful one-punch KO was bestowed on the world. Weiss has lost 10 of his last 12 fights, but only one of those losses has been by knockout, so maybe he’s learned his lesson about keeping the mitts up and the chin down.

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO…

#10: Shinya Aoki’s Flying Guard Pull/Japanese Backpack

(Aoki vs. Cavalcante and Moore, respectively.)

When you fight Aoki you know he wants to get things to the ground, and he knows that you know it.  Takedowns and sweeps can be hard to come by against an opponent looking to defend them and almost nothing else, so Aoki has had to find other , more creative ways of getting the fight where he wants it, even getting thrown and briefly mounted from time to time.  One of our favorite maneuvers is his flying guard pull.  It may look silly, but more often than not you’re coming down with him and playing the ground game.  If you defend that, he can always jump on you from behind like a kitschy Japanese backpack.  Think "Hello Kitty," only way more dangerous. 

#9: Matt Hughes‘ Slam

(Hughes KO slams Newton at the 1-minute mark, Frank Trigg gets his at 3:20.)

When wrestlers first emerged as a dominant force in MMA they faced an obvious problem: nothing in their background had prepared them to finish fights.  In the UFC, pinning dudes will just get you boos and a call for action from Big John, so you’d better come up with something else.  Matt Hughes did, and that something was his farmboy slam.  He knocked Carlos Newton out with it at UFC 34, and used it as a staple in his game for years.  Even if it was rarely as effective in ending fights as it was against Newton, it still looked cool when he walked across the cage with an opponent on his shoulder like a sack of flour, and it sure got the fans fired up, like it did in Hughes’ dramatic comeback victory against Frank Trigg at UFC 52.

#9: Aleksander Emelianenko vs. James Thompson @ PRIDE 28 (10/31/04), 11 seconds

Beginning with one of the greatest face-offs in MMA history — which pitted Thompson’s theatrical fury against Aleks’s nose-picking stoicism — it was clear that this fight was going to provide an entertaining clash of styles. Thompson’s ridiculous “gong-and-dash” routine actually succeeds in catching Emelianenko off-guard, but as soon as the Grim Reaper springs back to his feet, reality sets in. Thompson proceeds to eat punch after punch until his legs give out, thus proving a very important lesson: It doesn’t matter how big you are, or how angry you look — real power comes from having tons of Russian prison tattoos.

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO…

Loyal readers of this site know how much we love video highlights and lists of things, so it should be no surprise that we really enjoyed the latest effort from KingAtRock (who you might remember from such videos as this one or that one).  So yeah, we probably would have posted this regardless, but it sure didn’t hurt that he gave us a little shout-out at the end.  Let this be a lesson to the rest of you: never underestimate the power of pandering to our collective ego.  

On the real though, this is a pretty solid list of upsets.  It does seem a little strange, considering what we know about each man’s career trajectory, to think of Rashad Evans’ brain cell-destroying knockout of Chuck Liddell as an upset.  At the time it was a shocker, sure, but now it seems like we probably should have seen it coming.  Who knows, maybe someday we’ll be saying the same thing about Thales Leites’ dramatic victory via flying triangle choke over Anderson Silva.  Probably not, though.

(Props: Caposa3 via "CRE" on the UG)

Less than three full months into 2009, and we’ve already seen some of the most creative submissions and brutal KOs in recent memory; this new highlight comp collects the best of them. Between the slo-mo footage and understated, ambient soundtrack, moments like Demian Maia‘s triangle choke of Chael Sonnen (1:17-1:47) and Nate Marquardt‘s devastation of Wilson Gouveia (3:46-4:02) seem even more epic. Enjoy. 

Here’s the latest monthly MMA video summary from FightFace, featuring the greatest hits from UFC Fight Night 17, UFC 95, MFC 20 and more; big ups for the Jeff Buckley soundtrack. Anybody know who was responsible for that insane upkick KO at the 1:25 mark? (Update, from Facey himself: "That was Dustin Kempf from the North American Allied Fight Series, although he ended up winning by RNC.") For more great MMA highlights, check out fightface.blogspot.com.

 
Our highlight-video-making buddy Facey has launched a new site called FightFace, where he’ll be compiling the best MMA moments of every month into a single convenient clip. As far as source material is concerned, it doesn’t get much better than December 2008, which is the subject of Facey’s first installment. See above for the craziest stoppages from the TUF 8 finale, UFC’s "Fight for the Troops," WEC 37, UFC 92, and Fields Dynamite!! 2008. It’s an awesome project so keep your eye on it and show some support.

Also: If you don’t think it’s too early in the day to watch bikini-clad chicks gyrate at an MMA ring girl competition, you may want to watch the clip after the jump.

#15: Junior Dos Santos uppercuts Fabricio Werdum directly out of the heavyweight top ten at UFC 90 (10/25/08)

#14: Shane Carwin forcibly ejects Christian Wellisch’s mouthpiece during his Octagon debut at UFC 84 (5/24/08)

#13: Yves Edwards’s daredevil hopping-knee against Edson Berto at EliteXC: Street Certified (2/16/08)

For knockouts #15-8, click here.

#7: Shaun Parker and Tyler Bryan knock each other out while guest referee Shonie Carter momentarily loses his shit @ LFC 25 (5/16/08)

#6: Thiago Alves’s rocket-powered flying knee to Matt Hughes’s jaw at UFC 85 (6/7/08); replay starts at 2:19.

#5: Jeremy Stephens throws his fist like a fast-pitch softball and strikes out Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC 91 (11/15/08)

#4: Josh Koscheck gives Yoshiyuki Yoshida two brutal knockout punches for the price of one at UFC Fight for the Troops (12/10/08)

#3: An on-the-ropes Rory Markham pulls the head kick of the year directly out of his ass against Brodie Farber at UFC Fight Night 14 (7/19/08)

#2: Rashad Evans damn-near kills Chuck Liddell with the Overhand Right From Hell at UFC 88 (9/6/08)

#1: Duck, duck, duck, GOOSE! Rampage slays his personal demon at UFC 92 (12/27/08)

BONUS: The Worst Knockout of the Year
Seth Petruzelli taps Kimbo Slice’s off-button at EliteXC: Heat (10/4/08), bringing down the entire organization in the process.

If you liked this list, do us a solid and Digg it.

(Shhh…go to sleep.  Gif thanks to Smoogy on the UG.)

Dave Kaplan is officially the luckiest son of a bitch on last night’s Ultimate Finale card.  For getting his ass handed to him by Junie Browning in the evening’s first televised bout he received a $25,000 bonus for “Fight of the Night,” as did Browning. 

Not that it was a bad fight by any means, but neither was it exhilarating or even all that competitive, unless Dana White is really that impressed by a guy willing to keep trying the same straight foot lock that only works on BJJ blue belts and Tim Sylvia.  If you ask me (and you kind of did, by virtue of coming to this website and reading this far, sucker), White wanted to reward Browning for showing up and appearing to have his shit together, and Kaplan’s pockets got fatter just by being in the way.  As long as the check clears, “Diamond” Dave can’t complain.

The Knockout of the Night bonus obviously went to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson for putting his shin across Kevin Burns’ jaw and reminding us all that sleep truly is the cousin of death.

Krzysztof Soszynski (K-Sos to the Potato Nation) pocketed 25 grand for Submission of the Night after wrenching Shane Primm’s shoulder all out of shape.

Full disclosed payouts and analysis of said payouts from last night’s event are after the jump.  Won’t you join us?

(Props: NBCSports via BloodyElbow)

Saturday’s episode of Strikeforce on NBC presented a countdown of the league’s all-time greatest knockouts, including KOs from Cung Le, Frank Shamrock, Kazuo Misaki, Duane Ludwig, and Paul Buentello; part 1 is above, parts 2 and 3 are after the jump. Watch as Joe Riggs finds himself on the happy and unhappy ends of two featured bouts, Buentello gobbles up the #2 and #3 spots, and color-man Ken Shamrock uses the "sack of potatoes" knockout metaphor twice.

(Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown; props to MMA Scraps.)

Last night’s WEC show drew 5,227 fans for a live gate of $563,578, according to MMA Weekly. $7,500 bonuses were awarded to the following fighters:

Fight of the Night: Donald Cerrone and Rob McCullough for their three-round undercard war that some are calling a fight-of-the-year candidate; too bad we had to see the Filho/Sonnen debacle instead. Cerrone took home the unanimous decision win.

Knockout of the Night: Mike Brown for his beating of Urijah Faber. Which was nice and all, though Aaron Simpson kinda got robbed.

Submission of the Night: Rani Yahya for his first-round guillotine choke of Yoshiro Maeda, also from the undercard.

TKO of the Night?: Leonard Garcia reportedly got an extra $7,500 for steamrolling Jens Pulver.

Full results can be found here. More videos after the jump…

In the year I’ve been writing this site, I’ve watched millions, perhaps billions of MMA videos — everything from fights to highlight reels to documentaries to Chuck Liddell wasted on a morning show. Most of them I’ve forgotten as soon as they were over. Some of them may stay with me forever. The ten videos below represent the best overview of this crazy sport that I can possibly present. And I won’t degrade their brilliance by ranking them. Think of this as my personal mixtape to you…
(BG)

Aleksander Emelianenko vs. James Thompson, PRIDE 28, 10/31/04

Thompson’s unbridled rage and Aleks’s sleepy stoicism combine for my favorite face-off ever — and the 11-second knockout ain’t bad either. Seriously, this never gets old.

“Sakuraba: Beautiful Day”

Maybe the most inspiring single-fighter highlight video of all time. Though Kazushi Sakuraba’s gory losses to guys like Wanderlei Silva, Ricardo Arona, and Antonio Schembri are just as memorable as his wins, Saku at his best was MMA at its best — inventive, thrilling, and joyous.

Absolute Fighting Championship 1 Highlights

Moscow, 1995. A 32-man one-day bareknuckle tournament. A 6’8″ Brazilian beast named Ricardo Morais. Four submissions via strikes (all in under two minutes) and one rear-naked choke after a ten-minute battle with Mikhail Illoukhine. Even if the rest of Morais’s career didn’t quite live up to the promise of his fearsome debut, he was legendary that night.

(Props: MMA Scraps)

This 18-minute compilation is the only PRIDE highlight reel you’ll ever need, featuring the most brain-rattling finishes by Aleksander and Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Mirko Cro Cop, Dan Henderson, Quinton Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Sergei Kharitonov, Joachim Hansen and many more. Listen closely at the 8:27-8:30, 8:47-8:50, and 17:47-17:50 marks to hear early versions of Frank Trigg’s “Oh! Oh no! Oh no!” catchphrase that he perfected during the Fedor/Sylvia fight.

(Props: BloodyElbow)

Speaking of dudes who knock people dead, here’s heavyweight rising star Shane Carwin discussing his fight against the noticeably smaller Neil Wain at UFC 89 this Saturday. Carwin is currently 9-0, with all wins coming via first-round stoppage, and all but one of those stoppages happening within the first two minutes.

Something short, simple, and hilarious awaits you after the jump…

Gegard Mousasi vs. Melvin Manhoef

Zelg Galesic vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza

The conclusion of Dream.6′s middleweight Grand Prix, plus more, after the jump.

Props: MMA Scraps

(Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans)

(Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann)

(Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares)

CagePotato reader “Facey” put together this highlight video featuring MMA’s biggest stars showing little regard for the health of their opponents. From Wanderlei Silva knocking Sakuraba and Jardine dead, to Yves Edwards’s ninja-kick KO of Josh Thomson, to Chuck Liddell beating down Tito Ortiz, to “the Randleplex” — it’s pretty much the only knockout compilation you’ll ever need. If you dig it, let him know in the comments section below or at its original home on Break.com

Break got a cease and desist letter for this one! So here’s another just as good knockout comp from Facey, that for now is living comfortably on YouTube. Enjoy.

MMA Scraps has a great video compilation of the top ten K-1 fights (in their humble opinion) that I highly recommend you check out, especially if you’re the type of MMA fan who never watched much K-1. The above example, which topped the list, ought to be reason enough to check it out.

And if, like me, you watched the Mark Hunt-Ray Sefo fight and it only made you hungry for more Mark Hunt action, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered after the jump, complete with some of his MMA exploits. It’s worth the extra click just to see the look on Cro Cop’s face when Hunt takes his best head kick and keeps on coming.

Drop whatever it is you’re pretending to do and watch this highlight reel (props: KingAtRock), which covers the year’s best knockouts from the UFC and EliteXC, starring Kala Kolohe Hose, Wilson Gouveia, Tim Boetsch, Chris Leben, Brett Rogers, Yves Edwards, and Kimbo Slice.

Also: If you need proof of Dana White’s rumored iron-pumping prowess, check out the wacky video after the jump.

(Shaun Parker vs Tyler Bryan @ LFC 25. You can’t make this stuff up. Props to MMAScraps)

(From The Iron Ring: Some dude tries to secure an armbar and gets his head dribbled.)