Merry Christmas everyone! As the year winds down and the UFC layoff continues, it’s a perfect time to look back over the most eventful moments of 2025. Specifically, we’ll be talking here about the best knockout wins of the year, the jaw-dropping head kicks and overhands heard ‘round the MMA world. Similar to submissions, this is all about weighing uniqueness vs. the profile of a finish. Is a perfect 360 spinning kick on the undercard better than a main event left hook? How about if a title is on the line? It’s all up for debate, but here’s a handful of the top picks.
Let’s check out 2025’s “Knockouts of the Year.”
ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – OCTOBER 25: (L-R) Quillan Salkilld of Australia knocks out Nasrat Haqparast of Germany in a lightweight fight during the UFC 321 event at Etihad Arena on October 25, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
5. Quillan Salkilld vs. Nasrat Haqparast
This knockout features a tremendous single-shot finish, great story, and excellent performance from a relative unknown.
I’ll confess that I didn’t really remember Salkilld in the lead up to his UFC 321 battle versus the far more established Haqparast. He had won a couple UFC fights already, and I’m confident I watched them at the time, but there’s a lot of random young talents joining the roster nowadays. Most of them return to the regional scene sooner than later, failing to make an impact.
25-year-old Salkilld is an exception. The Australian avoided the boxing prowess of Haqparast with a steady stream of takedown attempts and powerful kicks, denying him that middle range. Suddenly, he went upstairs with a kick, and it landed with the sound of a baseball bat belting a home run. In fact, he kicked Haqparast so hard he broke his foot on the target!
Everyone knows Salkilld now, and a broken foot feels like a small price to pay.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – AUGUST 09: (R-L) Elijah Smith knocks out Toshiomi Kazama of Japan in a bantamweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on August 09, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
4. Elijah Smith vs. Toshiomi Kazama
Every once in a while, a knockout is so vicious it hurts your stomach.
I don’t believe I cheered when Smith slammed Kazama into oblivion — it was more of a silent prayer situation. Thankfully, Kazama was alright afterward, which means I can laud praise upon Smith’s win rather than try to bury the image deep in my memory.
In Mortal Kombat terms, this was a Flawless Victory. Smith, age 23, is an incredible athlete, remarkably fast and powerful. He ran over Kazama for a round, defending submissions by smashing in his face with ground strikes. Early in the second, Kazama attempted a triangle choke and instantly paid for that decision, suffering the worst slam KO since Quinton Jackson vs. Ricardo Arona.
Nasty, nasty stuff from the blue chip prospect.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 16: (L-R) Carlos Prates of Brazil punches Geoff Neal in a welterweight fight during the UFC 319 event at the United Center on August 16, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Ed Mulholland/Zuffa LLC)
3. Carlos Prates vs. Geoff Neal
Carlos Prates is a gift to UFC fans.
The Brazilian Nak Muay has consistently brought the violence in every Octagon appearance, and his UFC 319 collision with fellow slugger Neal was no exception. The two Southpaws were ripping low kicks and trading big power shots right away, but Prates found his range midway through the round. Before long, his power punches were landing, and he was making Neal miss without stepping out of the pocket by slipping his head off to the side and hiding behind his lead shoulder.
Prates really turned it up in the final minute, concluding the contest by spinning into a nasty elbow right from the open. The blow slid around Neal’s guard and caught him clean, making Prates the second man to stop “Handz of Steel.”
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 08: (R-L) Mauricio Ruffy of Brazil kicks King Green in a lightweight fight during the UFC 313 event at T-Mobile Arena on March 08, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
2. Mauricio Ruffy vs. King Green
Everyone turned against Mauricio Ruffy after Benoit Saint Denis ran over him in Paris a couple months ago. Before that, however, Ruffy was deservedly the Lightweight talk of the town, undeniably one of the slickest strikers in the division.
The “young Conor McGregor” comparisons were not baseless.
Ruffy’s two-minute destruction of the venerable King Green was high art. He easily and fluidly stung the savvy boxer with an invisibly fast right hand early on, backed him to the fence, and then unloaded a picture-perfect spinning kick for the knockout. It simply could not have been any cleaner, and even after the “BSD” loss, this knockout is still keeping him in the cage with top-ranked Lightweights like Rafael Fiziev.
We’ll see how Ruffy rebounds in 2026, but if his career amounts to nothing else, this highlight will live forever.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 16: Lerone Murphy of England knocks out Aaron Pico in a featherweight fight during the UFC 319 event at the United Center on August 16, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC)
1. Lerone Murphy vs. Aaron Pico
Lerone Murphy earned a UFC title shot and fought Aaron Pico instead.
In fact, he did so as the underdog. Pico is quite possibly the most highly touted MMA prospect of all time, a world-class wrestler with an incredible boxing pedigree who transitioned to the cage at a very young age. Too young, as it turned out, because Pico suffered some difficult losses while cutting his teeth in Bellator.
At the time of his highly anticipated UFC debut, however, Pico was past all that. Now 28 years of age and several years removed from his most recent loss, the expectation was that Pico was in his prime and ready to make a run at UFC gold. Perhaps he is, but he won’t be getting a jump start on his promotional career at the expense of Murphy!
Pico, as he does, threw himself into the fire right away. He charged after Murphy again and again, bombarding him with powerful punches and flooring him with double legs along the fence. Murphy, the composed and undefeated UFC veteran, calmly kept his guard high and worked back to his feet, waiting for his moment. When Pico tried to shift right and take an angle — on paper, a good thing! — before his next charge, Murphy found that perfect opportunity.
He spun instantly, catching Pico’s face in its new location with the point of his elbow. The timing couldn’t have been sharper nor the effect any more instant. One shot slumped the mega prospect, even if a couple coffin nail hammer fists snuck in before the referee could intervene.
2025 was the year of the spinning elbow. There were multiple high-profile spinning elbow finishes (see No. 3!) inside the Octagon, as well as quite a few on the regional scene. Murphy’s stands out as the best, however, which makes it the perfect choice for the top slot … even if the win somehow didn’t earn him a title shot!
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