If 2025 picks up where UFC Vegas 101 left off, MMA fans are in for another incredible year of action.
Of the fourteen fights that took place last Saturday, nine ended in a finish: two via armbar submission and a whopping seven via KO/TKO.
Arguably the best/worst knockout of the night came over popular middleweight prospect Abdul Razak Alhassan, who suffered a truly vicious KO loss on the main card.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Abdul Razak Alhassan breaks silence after KO loss at UFC Vegas 101
From fighters punching their coaches to insane last-second knockouts, UFC Vegas 101 was a solid way to welcome a new year of Mixed Martial Arts violence.
But just one event in 2025, and we already have a potential 'knockout of the year' candidate on our hands in the form of Cesar Almeida's devastating KO of Alhassan.
After a wild opening exchange with both men swinging for the fences, Alhassan looked like he was seconds away from winning, but as he unloaded from the pocket along the fence he was caught with a beautiful left hook.
The Ghanian was unconscious before he even hit the canvas, with veteran reporter Luke Thomas declaring that “this will be a contender for KO of the year.”
Alhassan has now responded to the brutal injury loss, admitting in a now-deleted Instagram post that he became 'greedy' as he sought the knockout and paid the ultimate price.
“I'm sorry fans. I got greedy and got caught. No excuses. I'm sorry for my fans, my true fans…
“I got greedy, went for it and got caught. I can't do anything but cry myself to sleep.”
The defeat means Alhassan drops to 12-7 as a pro and is now winless in his last three fights; at age 39, he may still have plenty of time to get back into the win column before hanging up the gloves for good.
Cesar Almeida's KO was one of nine nasty finishes at UFC Vegas 101
As previously noted, UFC Vegas 101 featured nine stoppages of a total of fourteen fights, with only one of the six main card fights going to the judges' scorecards.
In the evening's main event, Mackenzie Dern scored a smooth armbar submission in her rematch with Amanda Ribas, moving one step closer to a strawweight title.
Chris Curtis was knocked out by Roman Kopylov with just one second left in the fight, prompting 'The Action Man' to rage at the referee before teasing that he could return to welterweight for his next fight.
Santiago Ponzinibbio scored a nasty third-round knockout against Carlston Harris, with Marco Tulio, Punahele Soriano, Fatima Kline and Jacobe Smith also scoring big KO/TKO wins.
In particular, Smith called out welterweight champion Belal Muhammad after an insane first-round finish in his UFC debut and he's definitely someone MMA fans should keep a close eye on… Roll on UFC 311!
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