Firstly Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all of you, I hope you got everything you wanted and spent some quality time with friends and loved one’s while eating far too much food and watching a lot of TV. I certainly did, I should probably go for a run but first I need to give you my Knockout of the Year.

Mixed Martial Arts has had some amazing knockouts this year. Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida’s Steven Seagal inspired front kicks that KO’d Vitor Belfort and Randy Couture respectively. We also had Cheick Kongo coming back from the brink of being knocked out himself to flash KO Pat Barry. We even had a rolling front somersault kick courtesy of Marius Zaromskis but this knockout was better than them all.

My award for Knockout of the Year goes to exciting Middleweight prospect Cairo “Lightning” Rocha who left a lasting impression on me after watching the below MMA fight during a Challenge of the Immortals PPV held by Brazilian Fighting Championship.

After watching the video you’ll be able to see why the 6’3″ Brazilian speed demon is nicknamed Lightning. The only thing you need to know is Rocha is in the white shorts and Neves is in the black shorts.

Cairo Rocha Vs Francisco Neves

Rocha landed a superb spinning back kick right out of the martial art Capoeira. Beautiful and absolutely brutal at the same time. Neves is out cold before he even hits the floor.

Boom Headshot! I don’t care how good your chin is that kick would knock anyone out.

With more experience there’s no telling where this guy could end up. After all he is part of the fastest growing sport in the world!

Who got your pick for knockout of the year? Leave me a comment and let me know in the replies.

Thanks for reading cheers!