One of the best knockouts of the year happened on a Friday night on XFC 52 in Iowa.
We have already seen a number of wonderful finishes that will certainly be discussed in 2025 with Mauricio Ruffy's Wielschop against King Green, who is currently taking first place in the UFC.
As we recently saw on a Fury FC card, some of the best knockouts sometimes come from other promotions with Marcus Nash that delivers one of the most devastating uppercuts that you will probably ever see.
In 2020, the Knockout of the Year Award was immediately packed from the moment that Joaquin Buckley's kick was connected to Impa Kasanganay.
While 'New Mansa' is now in the mix at 170 pounds with Buckley who just misses a title shot against Belal Muhammad, a debuting Pro replicated his iconic finish on March 28.
Jaron Lathrop wins his pro debut via Joaquin Buckley Style Spinning Head Kick
In his second Octagon -outing, Joaquin Buckley produced one of the biggest knockouts of all time against replacement opponent Impa Kasanganay.
After Kasanganay had blocked and caught the left kick of his opponent, Buckley turned on the spot and threw a right head kick that beat his opponent cold.
The video broke UFC plates for the most viewed Instagram video and the most viewed tweet in the history of the promotion.
Unbelievable, the debuting Jaron Lathrop, who has an extensive amateur background at the age of 25, was able to replicate this performance on XFC 52: The Awakening.
Faced with 2-0 Yevgeni Shinkarevsky, Lathrop had captured a left Body skirt before performing a similar rotating main kick.
The aspect that makes Buckley's still more impressive, together with being first, is that his kick immediately ended the fight, while Lathrop had to follow a number of land attacks to get the finish.
That is not necessarily surprising, given that this fight took place at flying weight, which makes the stairs look incredibly fast compared to Buckley vs Kasanganay in the middleweight.
The, “Oh my God”, the reaction says it all, while one fan on social media noted: “I will not see 2 of these in the same decade.”
What has recently won the knockout of the year?
Fight fans will hopefully remember that the incredible kick of Jaron Lathrop comes the end of 2025 when it is time to crown the knockout of the year.
Since 2008, only one non-INFC entry has taken the prize during the World MMA Awards with the pathogenic flying knee of Michael 'Venom' against 'Cyborg' at Bellator 158 winning in 2016.
Stakes are also an important aspect to consider when it comes to the knockout of the year with Max Holloway's Zoemer-Klopper that is finished on Justin Gaethje on UFC 300 and the title-winning main kick by Leon Edwards against Kamaru Usman are easy choices for 2023 and 2022.
The Pick of 2021 was also a spectacular kick, because Michael Chandler quickly ended his fight with Tony Ferguson on UFC 274, while Buckley claimed the praise, Jorge Masvidal delivered the fastest knockout in UFC history against Ben Askren.
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