One of the best knockouts of the year happened at XFC 52 in Iowa on a Friday night.
We have already seen some stunning finishes that are sure to be talked about throughout 2025 with Mauricio Ruffy’s wheel kick against King Green taking the top spot in the UFC currently.
As we recently saw at a Fury FC card, sometimes some of the best knockouts come from other promotions with Marcus Nash delivering one of the most devastating uppercuts you’re ever likely to see.
In 2020, the knockout of the year award was instantly wrapped up from the moment that Joaquin Buckley’s kick connected with Impa Kasanganay.
Whilst ‘New Mansa’ is now in the mix at 170-pounds with Buckley just missing out on 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 greatest knockouts of all time against replacement opponent Impa Kasanganay.
After Kasanganay blocked and caught his opponent’s left high kick, Buckley spun on the spot and threw a right head kick which knocked his opponent out cold.
The video broke UFC records for the most-watched Instagram video and most-viewed tweet in the history of the promotion.
Incredibly, the debuting Jaron Lathrop, who has an extensive amateur background at 25-years-old, was able to replicate this feat at XFC 52: The Awakening.
Facing 2-0 Yevgeni Shinkarevsky, Lathrop had a left body kick caught before he executed a similar spinning head kick.
The aspect that still makes Buckley’s more impressive, along with being the first, is that his kick instantly ended the fight whilst Lathrop had to follow up with some ground strikes to get the finish.
That’s not necessarily surprising given that this fight took place at flyweight, which makes the kick look incredibly fast, compared to Buckley vs Kasanganay at middleweight.
The, “OH MY GOD,” reaction says it all whilst one fan on social media remarked, “No way I get to see 2 of these in the same decade.”
What has won knockout of the year in recent times?
Fight fans will hopefully remember Jaron Lathrop’s incredible kick come the end of 2025 when it’s time to crown the knockout of the year.
Since 2008, only one non-UFC entry has taken the prize at the World MMA Awards with Michael ‘Venom’ Page’s sickening flying knee 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 buzzer beater finish over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 and Leon Edwards’ title-winning head kick against Kamaru Usman being easy choices for 2023 and 2022.
2021’s pick was also a spectacular kick as Michael Chandler swiftly ended his fight with Tony Ferguson at UFC 274 whilst the year before Buckley claimed the accolade, Jorge Masvidal delivered the fastest knockout in UFC history against Ben Askren.