Anthony Johnson and the 10 Scariest Knockout Artists in the UFC Right Now
People are still underrating Anthony Johnson.
Your guess is as good as mine as to the reasons for it. Ever since making his peace with the fact that his true home is at light heavyweight or heavyweight, no one's been able to stop him.
Last summer, he dismantled rusty robot Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a mere 44 seconds. He subsequently found himself a big underdog against Alexander Gustafsson but made the Swedish hometown fans (and Gustafsson himself) break down in tears after a 135-second beatdown.
That was five months ago. Now he fights for the UFC light heavyweight title this Saturday at UFC 187. Will he win? He is, again, a slight underdog to Olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier.
But there's one area where he is an undisputed favorite: in the hunt for the UFC's scariest active knockout artist.
Who else is in there? Here's the top-10 list. This includes all weight classes and styles.
Note: this is more than just one-punch knockout power. That's too simple of a metric. It doesn't need to be only technical muay thai chops, either. If the opponent steps in against you and thinks "I am in danger of being finished with strikes," then you are a scary knockout artist.
Recent success and current status carry significant weight. If you were great three years ago, but not fighting now coughAndersonSilvacough, you may not belong on this particular list. Duck, cover up and enjoy.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 11
Listed in no particular order:
- Jeremy Stephens
- Donald Cerrone
- Abel Trujillo
- Francisco Rivera
- Brandon Thatch
- Conor McGregor
- Holly Holm
- Vitor Belfort
- Alistair Overeem
- Dan Henderson
10. Matt Brown
2 of 11
Record: 19-13
No. of knockouts: 12
Notable victims: Erick Silva, Mike Pyle, Mike Swick, Jordan Mein
Matt Brown has two losses in a row. But in both, the Ohio native never deliberately strayed from his style. Some have described that style as Rust Belt Muay Thai. Others have described it as I Just Found You Trying to Enter My House Through an Open Window and Now I Have a Very Heavy Lamp in My Hand.
Those two losses came to current and most recent champs Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks, by the way. So while the Matt Brown Heat Meter has been dialed back of late, he's still extremely dangerous and ridiculously aggressive. Expect more knockouts down the road from The Immortal.
9. Roy Nelson
3 of 11
Record: 20-11
No. of knockouts: 13
Notable victims: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cheick Kongo, Matt Mitrione, Stefan Struve
You have to go back to 2007 to find a Roy Nelson win that didn't end in a knockout. The big heavyweight's last 11 wins were all of the KO or TKO variety.
At age 38, Nelson seems to be an old dog who is unlearning old tricks. Once a well-known grappler, Big Country no longer knows the difference between a sweep and a swiffer. He has also lost four of his last five contests, including only the second knockout loss of his career, thanks to one Mark Hunt.
So perhaps Nelson isn't as dangerous right now as he once was, but that crazy right hand still earns him a spot.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
8. John Lineker
4 of 11
Record: 25-7
No. of knockouts: 12
Notable victims: Phil Harris, Alptekin Ozkilic
John Lineker's biggest enemy is himself. He's the lone flyweight on this list but won't be for much longer. Repeated failures to make weight (he missed by five pounds before his most recent fight) have forced UFC officials to demand Lineker move up to the next class.
"I have had some difficulty with the weight cut and getting there,” Lineker said at the UFC 183 news conference. “I’m going to go up to 135 [pounds] and make some noise there. I’m going for the title.”
Thanks to his deadly right hand, and his complementary ability to cut off the cage, Lineker has four knockout wins in his last six bouts. We'll see if he can keep it going at 135 pounds.
7. Chad Mendes
5 of 11
Record: 17-2
No. of knockouts: 7
Notable victims: Ricardo Lamas, Clay Guida, Darren Elkins
Chad Mendes is No. 7 with a bullet.
Thanks to new striking coaches in Duane Ludwig and now Martin Kampmann, members of Team Alpha Male have taken big strides lately when it comes to laying the wood on people.
You could ask T.J. Dillashaw, who outstruck Renan Barao for the bantamweight title. Or you could ask Mendes, who is currently using those bowling-ball hands to roll through the featherweight division's upper echelon. His left hook is dangerous. His uppercut might be even more dangerous.
I'm not marking down Mendes (or anyone else, including you, Conor) to outduel Jose Aldo anytime soon. But in a pure contest measuring the most dangerous knockout strikers, I'm putting Mendes at the top of his division.
6. Cain Velasquez
6 of 11
Record: 13-1
No. of knockouts: 11
Notable victims: Junior dos Santos, Antonio Silva (2x), Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
Cain Velasquez probably has the most underrated knockout ability in the UFC today. If I accomplish anything with this slideshow, it's to continue dispelling the myth that he is not a knockout artist.
Velasquez is a wrestler at heart. We all understand that. But then you see that 79 percent of his bouts have ended in a knockout victory for him, and you kind of have to pay attention to that.
And no, he does not have that one-hitter quitter in his arsenal. He's not going to tag you with a lot of head kicks. He's not going to win a Glory bout anytime soon.
And yet, a knockout is a knockout. And more often than not, his opponents wind up looking like they've gone through the gears of a chicken salad factory. And not the artisanal chicken salad with the grapes and stuff in it. The kind that comes in a can and looks like school paste.
Velasquez mixes it all up. He takes you down, clinches you up and pounds on you—over and over, until your face looks like week-old carpaccio.
Sorry for the all the food references. I guess it's just that I get so "hungry" to defend the baddest man on the planet against these persistent and quite ridiculous "pillow fist" accusations. The man is powerful. And he is a terrifying knockout artist. You must respect that ability. Watch any of his fights and tell me you wouldn't be scared to get knocked out. See? You can't do it.
5. Johny Hendricks
7 of 11
Record: 17-3
No. of knockouts: 8
Notable victims: Martin Kampmann, Jon Fitch
The bloom is off the Johny Hendricks power rose lately. But I submit that it hasn't actually gone anywhere, and that someday it will inevitably return in full force.
The ex-welterweight champ has no knockouts since 2012. But the men he's faced since then? Only Georges St-Pierre, Robbie Lawler twice and Matt Brown. I can't fault him too much for failing to deliver, given that he's been using his world-class wrestling and fighting in the proverbial phone booth to get wins.
Hendricks is just one of those brutal left hooks away from climbing right back up to the top of the list.
4. Robbie Lawler
8 of 11
Record: 25-10-1
No. of knockouts: 19
Notable victims: Jake Ellenberger, Josh Koscheck, Adlan Amagov
Robbie Lawler has a touch of the same disease inflicting Hendricks. He's got that Hasn't-Done-It-Lately-Itis.
The reigning welterweight champ did knock out Jake Ellenberger last year, so his drought isn't as long as Hendricks'. But for a guy who at one point had an 11-win-by-knockout streak going, expectations are high.
The champ is still only 33 and still plenty powerful, even if he doesn't really count on the curtain-closer as much as he used to. What also makes him great is his excellent in-cage IQ. You make a mistake against Lawler, you pay with your face.
He'll have another chance to turn heads at UFC 189 when he defends the strap against Rory MacDonald.
3. Mark Hunt
9 of 11
Record: 10-10-1
No. of knockouts: 7
Notable victims: Roy Nelson, Stefan Struve, Cheick Kongo
Never forget: We are so very close to living in a world of Mark Hunt, UFC heavyweight champion. So agonizingly close. The universe is a cruel and arbitrary mistress.
Back at UFC 180, with the interim title on the line, Hunt dropped Fabricio Werdum like a sack of cake flour. It nearly looked over, and the crowd lost its mind, but Hunt couldn't quite seal the deal.
He went on to lose to the better-conditioned, more well-rounded Werdum. But Hunt made his point. Even without a gas tank or any discernible ground game, and even on the bad side of 40 years of age, Hunt is a threat to any other heavyweight. His punches are like getting hit with a tree, after the tree has been de-limbed and suspended from ropes and retracted and then loosed in your direction.
His most recent loss was a bad, bad beating from Stipe Miocic. It wasn't good. But it did show Hunt's toughness. And it had nothing to do with any loss in power. He still has it and probably always will.
2. Junior Dos Santos
10 of 11
Record: 17-3
No. of knockouts: 12
Notable victims: Cain Velasquez, Mark Hunt, Frank Mir, Fabricio Werdum
Look at that list of victims. No one else has that sort of list. It's a shame that Velasquez has ground him into hamburger over those last nine-plus rounds, thus robbing us fans of a rivalry for the ages.
But it also has a terrifying ripple effect for other heavyweights, who now have to deal with a frustrated Junior dos Santos.
The punches, the kicks—Cigano has the full arsenal. And he uses it. Remember that spinning hook kick that finished Mark Hunt in one horrifying flourish? Now think back to Hunt hanging in there against Miocic.
Compare the power in those two heavyweights, as well as their results. Miocic needed 113 strikes to finish Hunt, according to stat keeper FightMetric. Dos Santos needed one.
And why hasn't that fight between Dos Santos and Alistair Overeem been booked yet? What exactly is the holdup? While we're young, UFC.
1. Anthony Johnson
11 of 11
Record: 19-4
No. of knockouts: 13
Notable victims: Alexander Gustafsson, Jake Rosholt, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
After the Gustafsson fight, this list had a new leader. Anthony "Rumble" Johnson has shown he can do it all and do it with a fearsome head-hunting style. Name me a scarier knockout artist right now. Again, you can't do it! This is why I'm the Michael Jordan of MMA listicles.
He was relentless against Gustafsson. He was patient against Phil Davis. Making weight is no longer an issue. His mind and body are free to do what they were born to do: beat people up by bludgeoning them with his limbs. Under sadistic Blackzilians striking coach Henri Hooft, it's all coming into full expression.
Rumble's head kicks and punches are equally dangerous. And it's hard to stop them, thanks mainly to his use of feinting. In fact, I can't think of anyone who has threatened him at all since he settled down in the higher weight classes. Maybe Cormier is the one to do it, and he's slightly favored to do so. But maybe Johnson can keep it rolling. People who have felt his power usually seem to blank pretty quickly on a Plan B.
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
