- Joined
- Jun 19, 2009
- Messages
- 1,665
- Reaction score
- 1,619
I know it's hard to judge the historical relevance of a fight in the immediate aftermath, however, my immediate reaction to Yair's finish of KZ was that it was the greatest finish in MMA history. However, in order to assess it accurately, I wanted to try to create a system to analyze the finish as objectively as possible. So I've scored Yair's finish according to the following metric:
Uniqueness - Have we seen it before? Will we likely never see it again?
Definitiveness - How devastating was the finish?
Come from Behind Factor - The later and more necessary the finish, the better.
Relevance - Finishes in title fights are obviously going to be more impactful than finishes on an undercard.
Uniqueness:
10/10
An elbow thrown in a way never thrown before gets a KO. Any time you see a finish that you'll likely never see again, it's gotta be a 10/10. Other 10/10 examples:
Anderson front kick to the face:
DJ's indescribable armbar against Borg
and ironically KZ's twister
Lots more fit this category, obviously. So many unique finishes in the history of MMA.
Definitiveness:
9/10
The "holy shit" factor. Watching KZ go down in an absolute heap is tremendously painful to me as a fan. Even though it was a definitive KO, there's a bit of a difference between going down in a heap and going down completely stiff. The only way to get 10/10 in this category for me is:
Barbosa vs Etim
Franklin vs Quarry
Not a fan of seeing injuries, but injuries that end fights are also extremely definitive and devastating.
Come from behind factor:
10/10
He was definitely behind. Knew he was behind. Got the KO at literally the last second. Latest finish ever in a 5-round fight.
Another 10/10 fight would of course be
Silva vs Sonnen 1
Though Yair and Silva were scoring come from behinds (needed the finish because they were losing scoring), physical come-from-behinds are also very impactful. Where one fighter is physically dominated and seemingly on the edge of losing and then comes back. This often happens in the first round of fights:
Diaz vs Daley:
Kongo vs Berry
Relevance:
5/10
10/10 fights would be the absolute most relevant fights in UFC history. Such as Chuck vs Tito. Fights that transcend the sport. 8-9/10 are important championship fights. 7/10 is an average championship fight. 6/10 would be a fight where there are immediate title implications. This is where the fight is lacking. It was the main event, but not on a ppv. It wasn't a title fight, nor did it have immediate title implications. Still, it's not as if it's on the undercard or anything. It was a somewhat important fight.
Total score: 34/40
In fact, I think the only finish that is even close for me would be Silva vs Sonnen 1, which would score:
6/10 - Uniqueness (triangles are pretty common and Chael has shown susceptibility to them in his career)
7/10 - Definitiveness (he tapped)
10/10 - Come from behind for the ages
9/10 - Relevance (huge fight, built up well by Sonnen, sold very well, but wasn't quite Chuck vs Tito)
Total - 32/40
So, by my metrics, Yair's finish is the greatest in UFC history, edging out Silva vs. Sonnen 1. What do you think of my metric? What categories would you add/remove to make the scoring more accurate?
