The Most Violent UFC and Bellator Finishes of 2017

2017 was a tough time for MMA in most regards. The UFC's top stars all had tough years defined by absence. Pay-per-view buyrates were down, card quality dipped and a slew of top fighters were shelved due to contract disputes with the promotion.

That said, while there were plenty of issues with MMA outside the cage, there were still a lot of fun scraps that took place inside. More specifically, there was a slew of stunning stoppages that put years gone by to shame.

Now that the new calendars have been hung and 2017 is a thing of the past, it's worth taking a look back over the last 12 months and picking out the most savage finishes of the bunch.

No. 10: Alistair Overeem Def. Mark Hunt Via Knee

Now 60 fights deep into his MMA career, Alistair Overeem knows all the tricks in the cagefighting book. And as the proud owner of the deadliest knees in the sport, he knows basically every conceivable setup for his favorite strike. That was on full display at UFC 209 in March when the Reem faced Mark Hunt and posted one of the most technically impressive finishes of his career.

Working in the clinch along the cage is one of the toughest parts of MMA, as it takes a great deal of trickery, precision and raw strength to set up any kind of offense. Fighters have found many sneaky ways to do damage up close, and against Hunt, Overeem's method was to hand-trap his way to a huge left elbow. On its own, that was a hard enough shot that Hunt was looking to break free from the clinch, but in reality, it was just a setup for the coup de grace.

As Hunt turned, he ducked right into a massive knee that badly wounded him. Overeem knew it, too, and closed the show right after with another knee that sent the Super Samoan face-first into the canvas.

It was a devastating finish made all the more impressive when one remembers that it came at the expense of one of the most durable fighters in recent combat sports history. Unfortunately for Overeem, that's not his only appearance on this list.

No. 9: Valentina Shevchenko Def. Julianna Pena Via Armbar

Julianna Pena is tough as nails and, at times, she is too tough for her own good. April 19, 2011, was one of those times as Pena, in just her second pro fight, let her elbow get destroyed rather than tap out to an armbar. It was an impressive display of her toughness, but it is also a memory that haunts those that saw it live.

Naturally, many had flashbacks back to that night at UFC on Fox 23 in January, when Valentina Shevchenko threw up her legs and snatched Pena's arm in a similar fashion.

Shevchenko herself isn't somebody who lacks for in-cage ruthlessness. The Peruvian kickboxer is well established as one of the best female fighters in the UFC and has shown herself to be formidable on the ground. As soon as the wrist was controlled, the hips were turned and the arm was extended, there was no question about where the fight was going.

Pena did her damnedest to get out of the hold, but there was no escape. Thankfully, she tapped before the damage was too severe, but fans still got a great look at her dislocated elbow by the time Shevchenko let go.

No. 8: Tywan Claxton Def. Jonny Bonilla-Bowman Via Flying Knee

Every once in a while, something absolutely absurd happens in MMA. Something that doesn't seem possible. Something that looks like it was pulled straight out of a movie or a video game.

Scott Smith's Hail Mary Haymaker win over Pete Sell. Anthony Pettis' Showtime Kick on Ben Henderson. The ending sequence of Cheick Kongo vs. Pat Barry. Sometimes, MMA just delivers something that needs to be seen to be believed.

Tywan Claxton's flying knee knockout of Jonny Bonilla-Bowman at Bellator 186 in November was one of those moments.

While (spoiler alert) big knee knockouts were a running theme of 2017, none of them were as stunning to see as Claxton's. After making Bonilla-Bowman bite on a feint, the debuting fighter launched himself forward, threaded the guard and landed the fight-ending knee cleanly.

It was an amazing display of agility and was so picturesque that the moment of impact could be silhouetted into the MMA equivalent of the Air Jordan logo. While it's unrealistic to expect Claxton to pull off something like this with any regularity, this certainly makes his sophomore effort as a must-watch affair.

No. 7: Kristina Williams Def. Heather Hardy Via Doctor Stoppage

Not all finishes require a singular, fight-ending strike to be insanely violent. Just look at the Bellator 185 fight in October between Heather Hardy and Kristina Williams.

Despite being an accomplished boxer, Hardy struggled to deal with a sharp striker in the cage in just her second pro bout, absorbing kicks at range and elbows up close. Williams discovered this early in the fight and kept the pressure high and the volume up. 

The result? An absolute bloodbath.

Though Williams lacked the pure power to score the knockout, she had the energy to keep a steady pace and constantly lay hands on Hardy. The damage added up with time, resulting in the former boxer amassing multiple cuts, two swollen eyes and a broken nose. That ultimately led to a doctor's stoppage in the second round.

While the climax of the fight didn't have the "oomph" of some of the others on this list, it's impossible to look at the (so-graphic-it's-NSFW) before and after of Hardy and argue against its inclusion.

No. 6: AJ McKee Def. Dominic Mazzotta Via Head Kick

One of Conor McGregor's favorite lines is that he "bounces heads off the canvas." To some, it might feel like an odd thing to say. "How would you even do that," some might wonder. "That doesn't even sound that bad!"

Anyone that has actually seen it happen, however, knows how gruesome a sight it is.

One of the more recent examples of this came at Bellator 178 in an April bout between AJ McKee and Dominic Mazzotta. After a fairly routine opening minute, McKee cracked Mazzotta on the head with a kick that sneaks around his guard. The shot puts Mazzotta into sleep mode, but he gets completely shut down when his head smashes into the canvas on the way down.

The sight alone would have made this finish deserving of a spot on this list. The sound of Mazzotta thudding to the mat, though, is what pushes this one all the way to No. 6.

No. 5: Edson Barboza Def. Beneil Dariush Via Flying Knee

Edson Barboza is a rare specimen in MMA. Plenty of dangerous strikers have set foot into the cage over the years, but few have been able to maintain that over any length of time as most are homogenized by stiff competition. Barboza, though, is still every bit the assassin he was in 2010 when he broke out with his still-terrifying spinning kick knockout of Terry Etim.

Need proof? Well, just look at the flying knee he landed on Beneil Dariush at UFC Fight Night 106 in March. 

It's no secret that Barboza's Achilles' heel is his grappling. Even if fighters can't submit him, opponents will try to tie him up against the cage or hold him down to the mat in order to avoid his brutal strikes. That fact isn't lost on Barboza, though, and the Brazilian has adapted his style to deal with that in a number of ways.

One of his counters is an intercepting flying knee. While it's a high-risk move, the reward when it lands is an all-but-guaranteed highlight reel KO and that's exactly what Barboza got when he caught Dariush attempting a takedown.

While Barboza's 2017 will likely be defined in history by his crushing loss at UFC 219 at the hands of Khabib Nurmagomedov in December, it's worth remembering that his first fight last year was one of his most impressive victories.

No. 4: Matt Brown Def. Diego Sanchez Via Elbow

MMA is plenty violent. Like, violence is legitimately the objective of the whole enterprise.

But only rarely does a fight end with something so seismic that it leaves you with nothing in your head other than the question: What the hell did I just see?

That was Matt Brown vs. Diego Sanchez.

The November bout, a will-he-or-won't-he swan song for Brown as he tried to decide on retiring, was mostly uneventful until its finish.

He and Sanchez mostly felt each other out until Sanchez, backing toward the cage with Brown in pursuit, threw an ill-advised kick. Brown caught it at the foot and attempted to bulldoze Sanchez back further, but Sanchez refused to surrender a takedown.

Out of clear options, Brown held a hopping Sanchez in place for a few seconds, calculating his next move. The obvious and perhaps safe play would have been to pull the off-balance Sanchez into a single-leg takedown and maybe get top control for a minute or so, win the round.

Matt Brown, though? Matt Brown ain't safe.

After a brief delay, Brown dropped Sanchez's foot and came over the top with a swooping, arcing elbow that was loaded up at his own hip and finished its momentum near the canvas after passing through the unprotected dome of Sanchez.

One shot. Fight over. Go home everyone—thanks for coming out.

It didn't get much more violent than that in 2018, and it was a fitting end for one of the UFC's truest fighters if he's truly done.

—Matt Ryder

No. 3: Paul Daley Def. Brennan Ward Via Flying Knee

Think about how much force is exerted when a person jumps. Now imagine it's a musclebound person that weighs nearly 200 pounds, with a running start. Then imagine all that force being concentrated into one point, and smashing against the side of another person's head.

That's what Brennan Ward was hit with when he faced Paul Daley in January.

After trying to drag the British striker into a grappling match, Ward was smacked with a fierce spinning elbow. Sensing the American was wounded, Daley charged at him, full speed, and threw a flying knee with every ounce of power he could. It landed hard—and put Ward to sleep on the spot.

Daley was already known as a savage fighter with a penchant for big knockouts. His performance at Bellator 170, however, pushed that to a whole new level and gave him possibly the greatest highlight of his long career.

No. 2: Marlon Moraes Def. Aljamain Sterling Via Knee

The scariest part of MMA is when a fighter doesn't get up after a knockout.

For the most part, fans are spoiled in this regard. Even if a competitor is laid out in devastating fashion, more often than not, they will pop back up instantly and begin disputing the legitimacy of the stoppage. And when they don't get right back up, they'll usually be on their feet and walking without assistance by the time the official decision is read. 

Marlon Moraes' devastating knee knockout of Aljamain Sterling at UFC Fight Night 123 was different, though.

After a frenetic opening minute, Sterling shot for a takedown as Moraes was going for a kick. The result was a loud knee-to-head collision that folded Sterling in half, sent him face-first into the canvas and left him there for minutes. Sterling was carried out of the cage on a stretcher, and the UFC never mentioned him again that in November night, leaving fans to wonder if they had just witnessed something tragic.

Luckily, Sterling was (more or less) fine when all was said and done, and he even made light of the finish a day later. Still, this was a sobering reminder that MMA is a dangerous sport.

No. 1: Francis Ngannou Def. Alistair Overeem Via Uppercut

Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images

Everything about Francis Ngannou is larger than life. Superheroic, even. The way he looks, the way he fights, his backstory...everything about him borders on being comic-bookish. It's fitting, then, that his crowning moment as an elite heavyweight came in, as many have described it, comic-book fashion with his picturesque knockout at UFC 218 in December.

Facing the tricky Alistair Overeem, Ngannou proved that his record for "world's hardest punch" wasn't just for show as he literally lifted the veteran kickboxer off his feet with an uppercut.

The image of Overeem floating to another plane became famous in its own right, but what pushes this over the top—and gives it the first-place spot on this list—is the devastating hammer fist that came afterward that left Overeem unconscious on the canvas for an extended length of time. The aftermath was captured and shown briefly in the recently released trailer for UFC 220 on January 20, when he faces Stipe Miocic for the title.

In addition to being an impressive sight, this was a legitimate in-cage accomplishment. While Overeem is past his prime, he is still firmly entrenched as a top-five heavyweight and one of the toughest outs in the division. Ngannou beating him, and beating him like that, cements the Cameroonian as the scariest man in the division, with one more win making him the undisputed best heavyweight fighter in MMA.