UFC 200 is here, and since UFC made a list of the 200 greatest fighters in their history, we figured we could count down the 20 best moments in the UFC. This was compiled before Jon Jones pulled a Jon Jones, so there won’t be anything from the past week. Maybe it can make the top 30 moments in the lead up to UFC 300.
The process: A collection of experts — Uproxx’s own Bill Hanstock, Jason Nawara and Jessica Hudnall, plus Jared Jones, Eric Jackman, and Spilled Bag of Ice — made individual top 20 lists. First place gets twenty points, down to 20th, which gets one point. All points from all lists are tallied, and the moments with the highest points are the Top 20 Moments in UFC history.
20. Lyoto Machida KOs Rashad Evans – 1st place (Eric)
Eric Jackman: Before Crying Jordan became the official face of failure… In fact, before Twitter became truly popular as a means of meme distribution and before Instagram even existed, there was one way to share in the joy of a professional athlete’s defeat: message boards.
From the moment Lyoto Machida lined Rashad Evans up and sent him into Freddy Kruger’s dream world (and the resulting pictures were published), this face of terror was brazenly passed around Sherdog like unlabeled supplements at a fight gym. The various “shoops” that stemmed from this one moment were both endless and impressive. Most memes become stale, but Shad Face is timeless. Pay homage.
Spilled Bag of Ice: “Karate is back” and the stanky leg and rolled back eyes will haunt poor ‘Shad forever.
19. Dan Henderson KOs Michael Bisping
SBoI: Everyone loves Hendo. And The Dan Grenade will f*ck you up.
Jessica Hudnall: AMERICA, F YEAH! Even if you didn’t watch the US vs. UK season of The Ultimate Fighter, you can appreciate a loud-mouthed, tea-slurping butter-toothed Brit getting all of his blocks knocked off by his American grandpa (Who then pointed to his balls while straddling the cage).
18. Chael Sonnen’s Soundbites
Eric: If anybody wants an example of how to promote a fight, find video of the UFC 117 pre-fight press conference. Chael Sonnen delivered a master class on ignoring questions, delivering one-liners, and generally pissing off the best fighter on the planet. So much so that there was a belief that Sonnen’s verbal barrages leading into the fight had rattled the typically playful Silva. Attempting to even the playing field without even throwing a punch is brilliant strategy and something that has been a staple of combat sports forever. But nobody had done it in MMA quite like Chael. And for my money, nobody has done it quite like Chael since. Conor McGregor is quick-witted and sharp-tongued, but he lacks the pro wrestling delivery that Sonnen used to capture our attention. Tapping into childlike wonder, we all gave in and we’ll all do it again when he prepares to step back into the Octagon. I have a feeling Sonnen isn’t done with us yet.
17. Phil Baroni, “I’M THE BEST EVAH!” – 5th place (Jared)
Jared Jones: Phil Baroni’s triumphant moment of celebration following his absolute blitzkrieging of Dave Menne at UFC 39 not only remains the highlight of his career, but probably the greatest post-fight celebration of all time outside of Ryan Jimmo’s robot (*tear*). It just perfectly encapsulates the kind of cocky, alpha male mentality that it takes to compete in a sport as crazy as MMA, even if the claim didn’t exactly hold up when looking through the lense of Baroni’s career.
16. JUST BLEED guy
Eric: Also known around the house as Dad.
15. UFC creates a women’s division – 5th place (SBoI)
SBoI: The ladies get their chance to shine and don’t disappoint.
Jessica: The fight was rad as heck and proved that Dana White is a big dumb idiot for saying women weren’t good enough to fight in the UFC. And isn’t what really counts, in the end?
14. Brock Lesnar submits Shane Carwin – 2nd place (Bill)
Bill Hanstock: This was a match that I watched in a crowded sports bar and is one of my very favorite MMA memories ever. You either loved Brock (like me and my friends) or you hated his rotten guts. Either way, you were convinced he was going to get obliterated in this fight. Instead, he choked the life out of Carwin to win the heavyweight title. I leapt to my feet and hollered my approval. No one gets me amped like Lesnar, no matter what sort of ring he’s in.
13. Lyoto Machida KOs Randy Couture
Jason Nawara: UFC 129 was a truly incredible event. At the time, it was the largest crowd in UFC history, and probably the most stacked card post-WEC buyout and pre-UFC 200. We had everything, including two legends going at light heavyweight going at it. Machida was doing his thing, biding his time, and then BOOM — he retires Couture with a perfect crane kick, which sent the old man’s tooth flying
12. Conor McGregor KOs Jose Aldo
Bill: All that buildup and it was over in 13 seconds. The Conor/Ronda/Silva parallels are everywhere, all the time, but this was pure satisfaction for McGregor fans and sheer devastation for McGregor haters. The epitome of backing up what you’ve been running your mouth about. On this night, Conor was the Yankees, LeBron and Tom Brady all at the same time.
11. Anderson Silva submits Chael Sonnen – 5th place (Jessica)
SBoI: SO SO close to taking Andy’s mythological legacy and making it his own… Chael lost focus for one fateful moment.
Bill: Chael, more than 90 percent of the rest of MMA fighters (especially at that time), understood how to sell a fight. His love of pro wrestling and specifically pro wrestling heels allowed him to sell the absolute hell out of his two fights against Silva. This first fight was the Fight of the Year for 2012 and for good reason. This, again, was Silva at the top of his game, proving that even if you can somehow find a way to win four and a half rounds of a championship fight, you’re never safe. No one is ever safe from the Spider.
10. Chris Weidman KOs Anderson Silva – 3rd place (Jessica)
Bill: Nothing sadder than watching the undisputed king fly way too close to the sun. As it was about to happen, I think we all saw it coming. But god bless the Spider for staying true to himself, all the way to dream street. An unforgettable, indelible moment. A shame it had to come at the expense of someone as beautiful as Anderson.
SBoI: There was a glitch in the Matrix and Weidman found it.
9. Ronda Rousey submits Cat Zingano – 3rd place (Bill)
Jessica: WHAT THE FRICK? WHY WOULD YOU JUST RUN AND JUMP AT THE LADY WHO IS AN EXPERT AT USING AN OPPONENT’S OWN MOMENTUM AGAINST THEM? Just an absolutely insane moment that still doesn’t make sense.
Bill: I hope people never lose their memories of just how unstoppable Rousey was at the apex of her run. Every time she got in the ring, it felt like an absolute event. As a fan, you were confident she would destroy the competition, while constantly being terrified it all might end at any moment. I watched this fight in a packed bar in Los Angeles and the crowd absolutely screamed at the finish. It was an exhilarating whirlwind of a fight, one that encapsulated everything great about MMA into 14 perfect seconds.
8. Holly Holm KOs Ronda Rousey – 2nd place (Jessica)
SBoI: The fall from up so high was stunning … and Holly is so nice.
Jessica: As this fight went on, my brain just kept saying “This isn’t happening. Is this happening? THIS IS HAPPENING!” over and over. Then Holly hit Ronda with that ole dodge, then the Head Kick of ancient prophesy and my brain caught fire. Holy heck.
7. Anderson Silva KOs Forrest Griffin – 4th place (Jason)
Eric: UFC 101 was the first live MMA event I’d ever attended. I was there to see BJ Penn, my favorite fighter and the best of all time (Want to fight about it? Test me, chump.), but it didn’t hurt that Anderson Silva was on the card.
While BJ’s complete domination of Kenny Florian was both impressive and entertaining, Anderson Silva sculpted a masterpiece on the canvas using Forrest Griffin’s soul as the clay. I can’t recall another sonning (Is this a New York term? If so, to son is to embarass in a devastating way.) this bad 99 numbered UFC events and countless other MMA events later.
Silva was in the cage with a man a full weight class heavier, but the difference in agility, timing, and coordination that should have been obvious on paper wasn’t evident until the first exchange. After that, Griffin and the crowd in Philly both quickly realized what was about to happen.
Several sloppy Griffin combos and Silva dodges lifted directly from the Matrix later and it was over as effortlessly as it began. The Spider barely broke a sweat. It’s trite at this point to reference the Matrix when describing the fight, but nothing else more accurately paints the picture of what happened. It truly looked like something out of a movie. Scratch that actually, because if they put this footage into a movie, it would seem like the stunt choreographers went overboard in making the hero look unbeatable. But at that time? That Anderson Silva? Is normal.
Bill: At the height of his powers, Anderson Silva was everything I’ve ever wanted from a fighter. He was so far above the game it was ridiculous. He was playing three-level Star Trek chess while everyone else was on Tiddlywinks. To watch him was to be thrilled and amazed. He made everyone else look foolish all the time and I absolutely adored him for it. Eventually, the game caught up to him, but we’ll always have his legendary assholishness to keep us warm at night.
6. UFC 1 – 1st place (SBoI), 2nd place (Jason)
Jason: This is probably one of the first MMA highlights I ever saw. I can’t recall if I saw UFC 1 or 2 live on PPV with my dad (I’ll never forget those old cable boxes with the red numbers on the front), but this is definitely the moment I knew that this wasn’t pro wrestling. The shockwave Gordeau sent to Tuli’s head is unforgettable. The first fight in the first UFC sent a tooth flying into the crowd. Perfect.
Bill: Like I said, I’ve watched UFC since the beginning, renting the VHS tapes and watching these crummy-as-hell production values of dudes fighting in a cage without any discernable rules. UFC 1 is like watching the world’s weirdest underground horror film. It’s not like anything else and it barely resembles what the sport looks like now. But there was just enough of a seed there — and of course enough train-wreck brutality — to allow it to stick around long enough to become a legitimate thing. UFC 1 is anthropologically important — and not just because it instilled in me a lifelong, irrational hatred of Royce Gracie.
SBoI: Some Sparta sh*t right there.
5. UFC 178 Press Conference Brawl
Eric: When people are in public, especially when they are being broadcast to a wider audience, they are expected to behave in a certain way. Whether this conformity to social norms and cordiality is conscious or unconscious doesn’t matter; we’re putting on a face.
But over the course of one glorious exchange, all artifice was removed. The deeper feelings underneath the masks of Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier were revealed. “Are you there pussy” was one of the more memorable and quotable lines, but that entire interview — that was never supposed to see the light of day — was the purest shit talk you will ever find between two human beings: unrehearsed, at times corny, at times cutting to the bone… It was perfect.
SBoI: Jon is the guy you love to hate. DC is so earnest. The result is magic.
4. Matt Serra KOs Georges St Pierre – 1st place (Jessica), 3rd place (SBoI)
Bill: Still one of the greatest upsets of all time, in this or any sport (sorry, Bisping). Anyone can catch anyone at any time and that’s what happened here. But I’ll forever remember this legendary feud for Serra dismissively saying, “EHHHH, GO DRINK SOME RED WINE, FRENCHIE” above all else.
Jessica: This is still the biggest upset in UFC history. Holm was at least undefeated and a boxing champ and all that jazz. Serra won a title shot in the “washout” season of TUF. I mean, he beat GSP so bad that Georges had to see a brain doctor and throw a brick in a river with Serra’s name on it.
Serra’s request for a celebratory meal in Houston is also pretty great.
3. Scott Smith KOs Pete Sell
Jared: We talk a lot about comebacks in this sport, about guys snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and overcoming insurmountable odds with nothing but the heart on their (tattoo) sleeve, but there has never been a fighter who embodied this concept more than Scott Smith. Cung Le, Benji Radach, Pete Sell … all guys who were beating the brakes off of Smith … UNTIL THEY WEREN’T (except for Cung Le the second time). Like Rogan said, Smith’s come-from-behind knockout of Sell is one of those moments that, if you saw it in a movie, you’d say it was bullshit.
Bill: There have been a bunch of unbelievable finishes in MMA history — Arlovski vs. Emelianenko comes to mind — but a guy doubled over with his whole internal everything ruptured knocking a guy out cold as he comes in for the kill still takes the cake. Even watching it back again last week, I still wasn’t prepared for how out-of-nowhere it is. Pure instinct and luck and internal bleeding.
2. Robbie Lawler stares down Rory MacDonald between rounds – 3rd place (Eric), 4th place (Jessica)
Jessica: Remember when Robert Lawler had hair and was just the young kid at Militech? And got knocked out by a check hook from Nick Diaz? And it took nearly 15 years, but now he’s a terrifying blood god, demanding sacrifices in the cage. Fifth Round Robbie is a monster, but this was the only time we’ve ever been able to see that transformation. Staring down Rory MacDonald, spraying blood across the canvas, and then going out to smash Rory’s young Canadian face into pulp. Holy shit.
Also, that moment allowed me to make this, which is one of my personal fave vines I’ve crafted.
Eric: Still gives me chills every time I see it. I was at this event and by that point in the fight, the arena had come completely unglued. This moment tapped into something that every fan MMA desires. Is it a sport combining multiple disciplines, executed at frighteningly fast speeds by masterful technicians? Sure, at times. But at the end of the day, we’re looking for two warriors to enter a cage and throw down with reckless abandon to prove their toughness. Caution be damned.
The spirit of combat shown in that very brief exchange acknowledged (with no words required) that both fighters agreed to give maximum effort, every fiber of their being to physically harming the other. It’s what we hope to get out of each and every weigh-in stare, but the mark is nearly always missed. Robbie and Rory delivered in the fight and in that moment.
1. Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar brawl at The Ultimate Fighter finale – 2nd place (SBoI), 4th place (Eric), 5th place (Bill)
SBoI: TUF 1 got me into MMA but the finale probably made sure I’d be hooked.
Jason: I recently re-watched this fight, and it’s not as great as people remember it, but like the best fights, it was the story leading up to it that made this special. TUF 1 was fun, and the stakes were high. For Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar to come in and throw down like they did will never be forgotten. Sure, there have been better brawls, but this one meant the most to the UFC, and MMA in general.
Bill: Still the high water mark for the modern UFC as we know it. Bonnar would never again come close to matching his performance here, but it doesn’t even matter. I’ve watched UFC since the very first event back in the dark ages, but no other fight became a cultural touchstone like this one has. No matter what happens with MMA or the UFC in the future, the company can always point to this as what the sport aspires to be, and people will nod in enthusiastic approval.