The Best Finishing Moves in the UFC
The finishing move is a pro wrestling concept. It's the culminating hold or blow that puts away an opponent (at least ostensibly) for good, and all great wrestlers have one that belongs entirely to them.
Being products of the real world and all, MMA fighters don't have such moves. The circumstances are simply too varied and unpredictable to make finishing moves possible.
Or so it would seem.
On closer review, there actually are some elite fighters who have taken a move and made it their own. Because they invented it, because they're better at it than everyone else, because it's a tool they consistently use to finish fights, because it's exceptionally dramatic or some combination of these factors, one might say some MMA competitors do, indeed, have what one might call a finishing move.
Let us now look at the top signature finishing moves in the UFC right now. They are ranked based on their uniqueness, their effectiveness and the prominence of the fighter using them.
7. Dan Henderson's H-Bomb
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Dan Henderson isn't the only fighter who throws a lethal overhand right. But he is the only one for whom the punch has garnered a nickname, and as everyone knows, a nickname is half the battle in the finishing-move game.
At the same time, let us not pretend like the H-Bomb is purely a Hollywood creation. Even at the overripe old age of 45, Henderson is still competing in the UFC and still throwing that big right hand. It might still be, even at this advanced stage of Henderson's career, the most powerful punch in MMA.
For proof, look no further than last June, when Henderson floored Tim Boetsch after just 28 seconds to earn the 15th knockout of his pro career and stave off retirement talk. One gets the feeling Henderson will still have the H-bomb when he's 65, even if there's a small possibility he won't be fighting anymore by then.
6. Anthony Pettis' Showtime Kick
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Here's another move that gets big points for having its own name. But this one loses stature because it has been quite a few years since Anthony Pettis threw it—and when he did, he wasn't even in the UFC.
It was under the banner of the defunct WEC that Pettis ran up the side of the cage fence, pushed off and landed his kick to the side of Benson Henderson's dome. That was 2010, and it helped deliver Pettis the WEC lightweight title.
Pettis parlayed his flashy kickboxing style into a UFC title run, although he has in recent years fallen victim to injury and inconsistency. No matter. The Showtime Kick was such a mind-bending moment in MMA spacetime that it will probably have a place on these types of lists forever.
5. The Team Alpha Male Guillotine Choke
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The star-studded training camp for lighter-weight fighters has fallen on some hard times of late. Perhaps founder Urijah Faber and his Team Alpha Male stablemates can take comfort in remembering they have a stranglehold—pun very much intended—on this famous finishing move.
Flyweight contender Joseph Benavidez (pictured) has five wins by way of guillotine choke. Faber has seven. It's a time-honored technique used by the Alpha Males to, among other things, deter and punish opponents' takedown attempts. You're probably less liable to fully sell out for the double-leg if you suspect your reward to be an unceremonious curtailment of your oxygen supply.
So no matter what else happens from here on out in Sacramento, California, at least we'll always have the guillotine.
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4. Jose Aldo Leg Kicks
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As "finishing moves" go, this one is fairly pedestrian. At least on its face.
No, Jose Aldo has never notched an actual finish directly by way of leg kicks. Nevertheless, it's a devastating weapon for the longtime featherweight champ and one that is associated with him more than any other fighter, now or ever.
It comes on with minimal warning. Aldo employs almost no windup in the kick, making it a challenge to block or avoid. Despite this fact, Aldo is still able to generate incredible power on the strike. Just ask Ricardo Lamas about the damage it can do when it thuds against the meat of the quadriceps. Or you could ask Faber, who wound up on crutches after their fight in 2010.
Some bloom is off the Aldo rose after his recent loss to a certain Conor McGregor. But he's still a masterful—and masterfully efficient—fighter. Those leg kicks sum it all up.
3. Jon Jones' Hellbows
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Jon Jones' elbows are breakers of faces and breakers of men.
They could rain down upon you while you are attempting to pull guard. They could find the brittle part of your cheekbone while you clinch along the fence. They are guided by lasers and evil.
But what drives them? It's hard to say for sure, but we do know one thing for certain: It's something normal elbows cannot understand. Because make no mistake: These elbows are operating on an entirely different stratum, and they will finish you and everyone you care about.
2. Ronda Rousey's Armbar
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It's more than the fact nine of her 12 pro wins came this way. It's more than the fact she routinely slaps it on inside one round or even one minute.
It's that she does it all with another professional fighter knowing full well what's coming.
For more about what exactly makes the move so difficult to defend, check out this excellent breakdown from Elias Cepeda and Kenny Florian at Fox Sports. Here's one particularly illuminating nugget:
"Rousey's arm bar is different than everyone else's because she skips some time-consuming steps and throws out the textbook when applying the sub. ...
The textbook way most people are taught to lock down that position and keep an opponent on their back as you attempt to hyperextend their arm in the straight lock is to straighten out and lock down the legs, especially the one over the head, while pinching your knees together. ...
Rousey positions her legs in a different, and perhaps better, way to accomplish the former goal, while mostly disregarding the latter.
"
After her recent knockout loss to Holly Holm, the details of Rousey's fighting future are an open question. Regardless of when, how or even whether she returns, she and we can rely on her armbar to always be one of the deadliest finishing moves in the game.
1. Conor McGregor's Left Hook
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"Nobody can take that left-hand shot."
So said the man himself after his UFC 189 win over Chad Mendes for the interim featherweight strap (per Michael Stets of MMA Mania).
It's true. Mendes felt it, then Aldo fell before it in only 13 seconds. It's the linchpin of McGregor's offense and a constant reminder he is fully prepared and able to back up all that talk.
All but one of the Dubliner's seven fights in the UFC (all wins) came all or in large part because of that left hook. That's to say nothing of the fact an insane 17 of his 19 pro victories came by knockout.
You do the math. If there's anyone who can take that left-hand shot, they haven't come forward yet.
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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