5 of the most brutal knockouts in the history of the UFC women's divisions
The women’s divisions inside the UFC – Featherweight, Bantamweight, Flyweight and Strawweight – have now been around for quite a substantial time, since 2013, and the majority of the doubters that were around when the promotion decided to open its gates to female fighters have largely been silenced.
One knock on female fighters that still seems to remain, however, is the suggestion that they don’t have the same kind of knockout power in their strikes that their male counterparts do. But while it’s true that there aren’t as many one-shot knockouts in the women’s divisions of the UFC, to say female fighters don’t have knockout power is simply ludicrous.
Here are 5 of the best knockouts in the history of the UFC women’s divisions – knockouts that prove the idea of a lack of KO power completely wrong.
#1 Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia
Prior to 2015, Ronda Rousey had made her name as almost a pure grappler in the Bantamweight division. Sure, she had two TKO stoppages to her name in 2014 over Sara McMann and Alexis Davis, but the Davis win was set up by a huge judo throw and the rest of her wins were all via submission thanks to her legendary armbar.
‘Rowdy Ronda’ changed that perception at UFC 190 though with a truly vicious knockout of Brazilian brawler Bethe Correia. Correia had made the fight highly personal – taking jabs at Rousey’s family prior to the event – and it was clear that the champion was gunning for revenge, even though the fight was to take place in Correia’s home country.
Rousey came right out of her corner swinging, and despite Correia tagging her with some punches, she was able to keep coming forward. A wild trade swiftly followed and seconds later, the fight was done – Rousey nailed the challenger with a combination of left hands and a knee and followed it with a right to the temple that sent Correia down, face-first, unconscious.
It was one of the more brutal knockouts in 2015, and immediately made people believe that not only did Rousey have world-class grappling, but that her striking game was quickly catching up and that she had incredible knockout power, too. At the peak of Ronda-mania, this was probably her signature win.