Drakkar Klose will never live down his lone knockout loss.
The 15-2-1 lightweight contender is just days away from returning to the Octagon to take on Joel Alvarez at UFC Tampa, which will be headlined by Colby Covington vs Joaquin Buckley and take place at Florida’s Amalie Arena on Saturday night.
Klose is on a four-fight winning streak and closing in on a top-15 ranking at the end of 2024.
However, footage from his last defeat continues to go viral on social media.
Drakkar Klose’s KO loss becomes a meme
Drakkar Klose squared off against Beneil Dariush at UFC 248 in March 2020.
The 36-year-old got off to a great start in the biggest fight of his career.
In round one, Klose visibly hurt Dariush. During the following frame, both men opted to stand and bang to entertain the crowd on the undercard of Israel Adesanya’s fight with Yoel Romero.
Rogan feared that the end was near as he proclaimed, ‘Dariush is in real trouble’ as Klose backed him up to the fence and went hunting for a strike that would close the show.
However, the fight quickly turned in the opposite direction as Dariush connected with a counter shot that wobbled his opponent, who he subsequently charged to the other side of the Octagon.
Moments later, Klose was put to sleep by a hellacious punch that made the entire arena go wild. A camera captured Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier, and Jon Anik losing their minds in the commentary booth.
With his eyes wide, Rogan repeatedly yelled ‘Oh my God’, while Cormier collapsed into his broadcast partner’s lap as he marveled at the come-from-behind KO.
The footage led to a million memes that made Klose’s defeat unforgettable.
Four years later, Dariush’s win still regularly goes viral on social media.
Drakkar Klose goes viral again with slam KO
Drakkar Klose went some way to helping people forget about his famous loss when he picked up a violent KO win at UFC Austin in December 2023.
Joe Solecki made the grave mistake of holding onto his armbar attempt for too long. Klose made him pay by lifting his opponent into the air and knocking him out cold with a brutal slam.
Footage of the sickening slam went viral, but not as much as the video from his fight with Dariush.
Still, Klose embraced being on the other end of things as he watched the KO clip backstage.
He said: “God damn. I don’t know why he ain’t let go. S***, he was out. I should hit him again.
“Ah man, it wasn’t even close. I don’t know why he went for it. Damn, that’s nice.”
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