Most Horrific Knock Out In MMA

#1 Carlos Condit

Carlos Condit turned professional at eighteen years old, taking less than a minute to submit Nick Roscorta with a rear-naked choke in his debut in Juárez, Mexico on September 6, 2002. He also won his next four fights in the first round, with only one going past the one-minute mark, before tasting defeat for the first time, albeit under the shoot boxing ruleset, in his international debut. He faced off with ninety-five fight veteran and Shoot Boxing World Tournament 2002 champion Andy Souwer in Tokyo, Japan on September 23, 2003, losing by technical knockout with seventeen seconds left of the fight after being knocked down three times in the fifth and final round.

Returning to MMA, Condit continued his impressive run of form in the sport with a further three first round stoppage wins to go 80 before he was submitted with a Carlo Prater triangle choke inside the opening round in Albuquerque on September 11, 2004. He rebounded from the loss with a four fight win streak and returned to Japan to fight in Pancrase, losing to Satoru Kitaoka via first round heel hook submission at Pancrase: Spiral 8 in Yokohama on October 2, 2005. Following this, he had a stint in the Hawaii-based Rumble on the Rock promotion and defeated Ross Ebañez via TKO in his promotional debut before going on to compete in the ROTR Welterweight Tournament. The tournament's quarter-finals were held on January 20, 2006 at Rumble on the Rock 8 where Condit recorded a seventeen-second TKO stoppage of Renato Verissimo. The semis and the final both took place on the same night, April 21, 2006, at Rumble on the Rock 9 and Condit submitted Frank Trigg with a triangle choke/armbar hybrid to book his place in the final against Jake Shields. Going the distance for the first time in his career, Condit lost by unanimous decision.

Condit suffered a second consecutive loss in his next outing, submitting to a Pat Healy rear-naked choke in round three of their contest in Oakland, California, before making a return to Pancrase and defeating Koji Oishi via TKO in his sophomore appearance in the promotion. He ended his tenure in Japan with a Kimura submission of Takuya Wada and a particularly violent stomp KO over Tatsunori Tanaka before returning stateside and joining the WEC.

#2 Demian Maia

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Maia trained in Judo as a child. He began at the age of four and trained until he was six. When he became a teenager, he also began studying Kung Fu and Karate. By age nineteen, Maia was introduced to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by his cousin. After four years and seven months, Demian received his black belt.[5] Demian Maia finished college and graduated with a degree in Journalism.[6] He is currently a fourth degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has won several major tournaments under Team Brasa.

He won the 7787 kg weight division at the 2007 ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship, defeating Yushin Okami, Rafael Lovato, and Tarsis Humphres before armbarring Flavio Almeida in the finals. He also won the 2007 Super Challenge under 83 kg belt, defeating Vitelmo Kubis Bandeira by rear naked choke and Gustavo Machado by a judges decision before going on to defeat Fabio Negao by guillotine choke in the finals. On the heels of his ADCC Championship in 2007, Maia released an instructional DVD series titled The Science of Jiu Jitsu I & II in collaboration with the World Martial Arts company.

Maia's grappling prowess is so highly regarded among MMA fighters that noted heavyweight submission artist and fellow BJJ black belt Frank Mir hired him as his head jiu-jitsu coach prior to his UFC 100 title fight with Brock Lesnar. Mir credits Maia with bringing Mir's jiu-jitsu skills to different levels, saying "I thought I was actually good at it until I started rolling with him."

Maia has also defeated top-ranked UFC middleweight and multiple-time Mundial champion Ronaldo "Jacaré" Souza,[8] as well as former UFC heavyweight title challenger and Mundial champion Gabriel Gonzaga twice in grappling competition.

#3

After his thrilling and controversial loss to Robbie Lawler on Jan. 2, Condit was not keen to accept any fight other than a rematch. Even with that on the line, he entertained thoughts of retirement. After 14 years and 39 fights, many of them gutsy wars of attrition, who could blame him? It is something of a surprise then that Condit accepted a fight with Maia less than half a year later. Maia is something of a trap fight for Condit, as he is for all welterweight contenders. The 38 year-old is widely regarded as the best grappler in the sport, a stifling jiu-jitsu specialist who excels at holding down people and submitting them.

Maia's jiu-jitsu is complemented by an excellent wrestling game. While not one for explosive shots, Maia has an uncanny ability to drag opponents into his world. He chains together his takedowns extremely well, using the body lock to threaten trips, only to change levels and run the pipe to bring down his enemy, switching to sacrificial back takes when that does not do the trick. Maia's striking is his greatest weakness, though it is not as bad as it seems. Maia's ropey, unpredictable punches and kicks have caught such skilled fighters as Rory MacDonald and Chris Weidman off-guard, and they enable him to hide his relentless takedown attacks.

Of the two, Condit is undeniably the better striker. As Maia's striking is better than it looks, however, Condit's is sometimes worse than it appears. He has always been vulnerable to counters, relying heavily on one of the best chins in the sport to carry him through. Condit's striking seems to be based on a principle of negative reinforcement. He shifts forward, chains together a practiced series of strikes and eats a counter. Instead of backing off and defending when this happens, he will launch the same attack again, changing one or two of the pieces to suit his opponent's counter. He ran into Thiago Alves' counter hook repeatedly but capitalized on the pattern by launching an elbow instead of a punch, shattering Alves' nose and setting him up for the finish. Had he not suffered a gruesome knee injury in his fight with Tyron Woodley, there is no doubt the "Natural Born Killer" would have found some way to make Woodley pay for the powerful but predictable right hand that he had repeatedly planted on Condit's chin.

Stamina is perhaps Condit's biggest advantage in this fight. His awkward striking will leave him open to Maia's takedowns, but even with a dangerous guard, there is virtually no chance that he will be able to outgrapple Maia on the ground. Like MacDonald before him, however, he can make Maia work to keep his position and wear the middle-aged grappler out. Maia faded badly after a dominant first round against MacDonald, and he was ripe for the picking in the fifth round of his fight with Ryan LaFlare -- although that bout was changed from three to five rounds shortly before it took place.

THE ODDS: Condit (-120), Maia (+100)

THE PICK: If Condit can tire out Maia, he will be uniquely capable of pressing his advantage in the latter rounds. Condit has one of the best gas tanks in the sport, even outpacing Nick Diaz in a five-round fight. Like MacDonald before him, Condit could leverage this stamina into a comeback win. Condit has never possessed MacDonald's defensive wrestling, however, and has indeed been willing to fight from his back throughout much of his career; and even MacDonald came dangerously close to losing to Maia before reversing a third-round takedown. Maia is less likely to gas if he can control Condit in the early going, and Condit's wide-open striking will give the Brazilian opportunities to continue taking him down as the fight wears on. Do not count out a win for the "Natural Born Killer," but the pick is Maia by unanimous decision.

#4 Watch It