5 Times we thought a UFC fighter died in the Octagon
MMA sells itself as a safe sport for the most part – the days of the “human cockfighting” reputation are now long gone, and one of the UFC’s calling cards during their attempt to gain acceptance was that the sport had far less serious injuries than boxing.
With that said, though, some of the knockouts we’ve seen inside the Octagon have been scary. Genuinely, genuinely scary. So much so that the fighter on the wrong end of a handful of them almost looked like a corpse once they hit the ground.
All of these fighters recovered, of course, and went on to fight again without any truly serious injuries, but at the time of the knockout, the fans watching – myself included – were usually terrified for their wellbeing.
Here are five UFC knockouts bad enough to make you think that the loser had actually died inside the Octagon.
#1 Ryan Bader vs. Ilir Latifi – UFC Fight Night 93 – 09/03/16
We begin with a pretty recent one, from the UFC’s 2016 trip to Hamburg, Germany. Coming into this fight, Ryan Bader didn’t exactly have a reputation for exciting fights, despite being somewhat of a knockout puncher in his very early UFC career, as he’d won all of a recent five-fight win streak via decision.
His opponent, Swedish fighter Latifi, had become a popular cult hero with the fans mainly due to an odd charisma, an intimidating physique and some fun finishes over the likes of Sean O’Connell and Cyrille Diabate.
Most fans expected a grappling match coming in, with the big question being whether Latifi could stop Bader’s stifling wrestling game, as he seemed to have an advantage in power standing and Bader’s chin was widely considered questionable due to a string of knockout losses in his past.
To say that idea was wrong would be an understatement.
After a largely even first round, punctuated with a late combination from Latifi that knocked Bader down, the advantage appeared to lie with the Swede going into the second round despite Bader largely outstriking him for the first five minutes. Nobody could’ve seen what would happen next.
After another even two minutes, Latifi decided to change things up and attempted to take the former NCAA Division 1 wrestler down with a double leg. He dived in for the takedown at the exact same moment that Bader threw a huge right knee strike upwards. The irresistible force met the immovable object, which suddenly didn’t seem immovable any more.
Latifi’s body was launched backwards through the air as if Bader had pulled the pin from a grenade and stuffed it into the Swedish fighter’s mouth. He landed unconscious, arms outstretched, and Bader simply walked away, having no need whatsoever to follow the shot up.
Although ‘The Sledgehammer’ came around after a few moments, this was a genuinely frightening knockout. Latifi was unconscious before he hit the ground, and his body looked eerily corpse-like once he did land. Bader’s best knockout? You betcha.