MMA: Top 10 Flying Knee Knockout Videos On The Web

There are few things in the sport that are as devastating as a good knee to the head, right?

Exactly.

Now take that knee and imagine someone flying through the air and lifting their knee up with the intention of knocking you out.

Indeed, few maneuvers in MMA are as flashy or as brutal as the flying knee, and if you don't believe me, go around the net and look for instances of the flying knee's usage in fights.

They do exist and they do hurt.

In ten such situations did the flying knee cause some sort of awesomeness upon knocking some sorry victim out, and without further ado, I'd like to present to you those ten situations.

No knees were harmed in the making of this slideshow, but a few people I'm sure were.

That's what happens when you take a knee to the face, though...

Honorable Mention: How To Crush Your Ronin—A Spider's Guide To Whoop-Ass

Of course, I had to show some love to the incomparable Anderson Silva and his KO of Carlos Newton by flying knee and devastating punches.

It was tough to exclude him from the main list, given he's my favorite fighter and all, but while the knee he gave Newton did send Newton into another dimension, it was the punches that did in Newtonand to be honest, I've watched this a couple of times and I still think the knee didn't hurt Newton like it should have.

Weird how a slam from Matt Hughes knocks him out and costs him his UFC Welterweight belt, yet a knee from Anderson Silva just puts him on his ass.

Oh well, It's Anderson Silva we're talking a bout.

Dude's a maniac either way.

Because the embedding is messed up, I couldn't keep the video in the spot where the videos usually go, so you can watch the actual video of the fight here.

10. Sick Fight, Sicker Knee

You can't really catch the knee that does in this one guy in this fight because when it happens, both fighters are on the edge of the screen.

To give you an idea of how this goes, I'll give you a bit of a spoiler for this fight: Two flying knees are thrown by the fighter that wins and one of them hits but doesn't rock or knock out his opponent.

The fight itself was a bit on the side of a "stand-up war" with a little bit of caution involved. After the first knee gets thrown, of course the guy corners his opponent, backs up, and runs to throw a flying knee again to end the fight.

9. Game, Set, Match: Pace!

Nick Pace was just another guy with a dream of the big time until he made an appearance at Bellator 11.

The official time of the fight was a minute and thirty-seven seconds, but the knee that knocked out Collin Tebo didn't even take nearly half that long to KO Tebo.

Pace has found defeat with his first career loss coming due to a unanimous decision loss against Demetrious Johnson, but if nothing else, he'll always be a bantamweight name to remember because of what he did to young Collin Tebo.

8. Karakhanyan Know How To Let His Knee Fly

Georgi Karakhanyan might be one of, if not THE, most dangerous Featherweight in MMA not named Jose Aldo.

Don't believe it?

Check out the flying knee he lands right at the start of the fight, and note the unnecessary shots thrown afterwards.

Like I've said, Georgi is one of the most dangerous 145ers in the world aside from Jose Aldo...and now you know why.

7. The Shot That Called Out Mike Brown

Jose Aldo didn't need to talk trash about Mike Brown in order to get his attention last year.

All he needed to do was prove that he had deserved a shot at the WEC Featherweight title in a convincing matter when he fought Cub Swansonfun factoid: Brown's rematch with Urijah Faber was on the same night as this fight.

All it took was eight seconds for Aldo to say "Damnit, Reed Harris, give me a shot at Mike Brown!" via a flying knee that knocked the dickens out of Swanson.

6. Turning The Lights Out

Note the taller fighter in this equation, because he's the delivery boy for the next knee on our list.

He delivers a few painful shot to our more short friend here and puts some damage on him, not to mention he takes a few shots himself.

What does in the shorter fighter is a different type of flying knee.

See, because of the height of our buddy here—he's the one in the pink-ish shorts—he needs a bit of a boost to make his flying knee work.

If our shorter friend here was delivering the blow, then we could have our traditional "Look, Ma, no hands!" type of flying knee.

Anyhow, the boost comes from a hold on the shoulders of the much shorter fighter in this Muay Thai fightnot really a clinch, but it does the job beautifully.

5. Well Shlemenko, That's One Way To Bring The "Storm"

If you're wondering why people are making a fuss about Alexander Shlemenko, check out this knee to the head of Sergey Akinin.

"Storm" had a nice guillotine at first but couldn't get it hooked in tight enough, so when the ref stood them up, he took out Sergey with a knee to the dome and knocked him the f**k out.

4. The Dome-Rock In Bangkok

This Muay Thai fight happened in Bangkok, Thailand, some time back, and my understanding of this is that it was really more like a demonstration.

Anyway, the most these two exchange are kicks until the fighter in the purple trunks gets pushed into the ropes and takes a flying knee head-on.

If this was really a fight, it'd be safe to say that whoever the guy in the blue shorts was, he came out a winner in this one.

3. Enter Sandman (And His Flying Knee From Hell)

Unquestionably, this knockout is one of those that you talk about when you're only mentioning the best knockouts in UFC history.

The only sad part is that Terry Martin didn't see this one coming.

All Steve Mazzagati did was ask both him and James Irvin if they were ready and then say "Bring it on, come on!" before Irvin came in and delivered a flying knee from Hell on Mr. Martin, knocking him out in about eight seconds.

It's only fitting that in the top three of this list of brutal flying knees is one of the most iconic and most memorable flying knees in UFC history.

Whenever you're done, the No. 1 most brutal KO by flying knee is...

2. A Cold-Blooded Cranium Crusher

First off, this fight is a good fight if you're into Muay Thai, and features some good kicks as well as a few flashy strikesone of which inspired Jon Jones, I'm sure.

The end can be seen near the end of this fight and the man responsible for executing this brutal KO is in the dark purple trunks.

Three knockdowns, and a flying knee resembling a Shining Wizard in the WWE...

There's nothing sugary about this, but don't take my word for it.

Check it out for yourself.

1. The Son Of God Makes Miyata His Sacrifice

Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Kazuyuki Miyata...

You have to see this one to believe this one.

Unlike the other fights on this list, this one doesn't see the ground, and the two don't exchange like mad men.

The knee to Miyata is literally the only thing that happens in the fight (plus I think Nori throws a punch or two to make sure Miyata's out, which he clearly is after that knee).

Haven't seen it?

Check this out and tell me this isn't brutal for four seconds of a fight.

One More?

Okay, just for kicks.

Let's Close This Distance Here!

If there's any brutal finish by flying knee that you wish to see added on here, please do not hesitate to let me know about it.

All I ask is that if you do request an addition to the list and you've seen it recently, please try to hook me up with a working link to a working video (can't stress that enough—YouTube was the main source for all of these videos, so if a good flying knee video exists elsewhere, let me know about it so I can add it to the slideshow).

Again, I welcome all comments, questions, and feedback on this piece, which is by far one of the craziest I've done so far.

Thanks for watching, Bleacherholics!

Dale De Souza is a Man on Fire—or as the regulars of MMA writing call it, a “Correspondent”—for Bleacher Report MMA, as well as a contributor to Sprawl-N-Brawl MMA, RealSportsNet, Sports Haze and Hit The Ropes MMA.

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