2022 Heavies Awards KO of the Year Winner: Leon Edwards

What's your KO of the year?

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  • Poll closed .
PurpleStorm

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Knockouts. We know them. We love them. Kaboom! Here's the nominees for the 2022 Heavies Awards Knockout of the Year. Where you decide the winner. Kindly tell us which KO you voted for and why. Dramatic descriptions are welcome. Feel free to mention other great KO's in the past year. The poll closes in five days.
​
** Poll closed.

Congratulations to the winner Leon Edwards!

Thanks to everyone who voted. **

1. May 7, 2022 Michael Chandler defeats Tony Ferguson R2 0:17 KO (Front Kick) at UFC 274. Michael Chandler ended this with a front kick to the face. Straight up Tony’s chin causing the sweat to fly and Ferg went straight down. Tony was doing pretty good in the fight until he wasn’t.​
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2. June 11, 2022 Weili Zhang defeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk R2 2:28 KO (Spinning Backfist) at UFC 275. In the rematch from their first fight which won fight of the year Weili dominated. Going aggressive Joanna slightly overreached and was met with a spinning back fist from Weili Zhang. Joanna fell face first to the ground, and retired an all-time great. Weili went on to to get the title belt by submitting Carla Esparza.
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3. August 20, 2022 Leon Edwards defeated Kamaru Usman R5 4:04 KO (Kick to the head) at UFC 278. The stakes don't get higher. A title fight. Current champ Kamaru Usman was on an incredible run of successive victories. In this rematch Leon had some early success. But by the end of Round 4 it looked like Usman would retain the belt. Edwards needed a stoppage. His corner gave Rocky inspiration. With under a minute remaining in the final round Edwards pulled a fake left that Usman looked to defend. Then launched a devastating left kick to the head. Down goes Usman! The crowd went nuts. Edwards captured the belt. He followed it up with an awesome post-victory speech. "I came from nothing. Look at me now!"
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4. December 17, 2022 Alex Caceres defeats Julian Erosa R1 3:04 TKO (Head Kick and Punches) at UFC Fight Night 216. Alex 'Bruce Leeroy' Cacares always brings the kung fu spirit of respectful warrior and exciting entertainer. Here he gets the ‘Hee ya! Chop chop!’ beautiful in its timing and balance. A swing and a miss followed by an extended left leg kick to the face that dropped Julian ‘The Eraser’ Erosa and gave Caceres fans another career highlight.
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Thanks to @KazDibiase and @Ladder Master for the gifs and to @giovanni_ss, @Jackonfire, @HockeyBjj and other mods & staff for assistance. Check out other awards and exclusive content at sherdog.com.

Thanks to everyone for reading and participating. Have a safe and joyful new year.
 
Uncertainly Principled said:
Given the context, how could it not be Leon v Kamaru? It's gotta be, for me anyway
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This is why this is too hard for me. Not sure how I could even rate such a thing. Some are just pure technical brilliance. Some are amazing because of the back story. Some are because of disdain. My add doesn’t allow for something like this.
 
Although I really liked the sequence of Caceres' KO, I have to go with Edwards over Usman, the most consequential and unexpected stoppage of the lot, IMHO.

A 20-1 dominant champion who had not lost since his 2nd pro fight, who was clearly up on the scorecards going into the final round, and was a minute away from his sixth title defense and muddying the GOAT WW picture...flatlined by a guy who wasn't getting his due and who didn't have a signature win over a top contender to cause people to think he had a big chance to win...done on the biggest stage of a PPV main event.
 
No doubt... it's gotta be Edwards welcoming Usman into the Shadow Realm! Scenario is from a movie... underdog has good first round and takes down the champ, but said dominate champ begins winning rounds 2 through 5. Rocky looked like he accepted his fate of hopelessness but his coaches screamed some sense into him. 1 minute away from everything he dreamed of vanishing (with no second chance for another shot from Dana) and he knocks Marty clean-out! I had already pictured Marty getting the nod by this point too so when he fell it was almost surreal... like what?! I've never had my jaw hit the floor that long and I was in complete shock for 10 minutes. Crazy. Then that emotional, inspirational speech Leon gave after... just chills. I'll never forget that night and it's easily KO of the Year.

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I went with Leon over Usman. Huge stakes, and a big comeback along with a picture perfect strike. Chandler's was awesome, though. Dude punted Tony's face 40 years into the future.
 
DEV.Woulf said:
No doubt... it's gotta be Edwards welcoming Usman into the Shadow Realm! Scenario is from a movie... underdog has good first round and takes down the champ, but said dominate champ begins winning rounds 2 through 5. Rocky looked like he accepted his fate of hopelessness but his coaches screamed some sense into him. 1 minute away from everything he dreamed of vanishing (with no second chance for another shot from Dana) and he knocks Marty clean-out! I had already pictured Marty getting the nod by this point too so when he fell it was almost surreal... like what?! I've never had my jaw hit the floor that long and I was in complete shock for 10 minutes. Crazy. Then that emotional, inspirational speech Leon gave after... just chills. I'll never forget that night and it's easily KO of the Year.

leon-edwards-headshot.gif
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Agree. Love your description. I watched the entire fight with my eyes glued to the screen. I was rooting for Leon.

Watching sports (and life) has taught me it ain’t over till it’s over. After round 4 it was obvious Leon needed a finish. He said something to his coach to the effect that nothing was effectively working.

His coach’ inspiring speech and Edwards’ affirmative reply got me going. Then that fifth round with both fighters having little left in the tank. Then with under a minute remaining that KO kick. Goodnight Irene. The cherry on top was Leon’s post-fight speech. All together make it KO of the year and up there with greatest in UFC history for me.

As a funny side note, I went ballistic nuts in the PbP discussion thread. As did a few others. Some had already went and did something else. It was exciting seeing peeps gravitate back and see the stunning upset on replay.
 
DEV.Woulf said:
No doubt... it's gotta be Edwards welcoming Usman into the Shadow Realm! Scenario is from a movie... underdog has good first round and takes down the champ, but said dominate champ begins winning rounds 2 through 5. Rocky looked like he accepted his fate of hopelessness but his coaches screamed some sense into him. 1 minute away from everything he dreamed of vanishing (with no second chance for another shot from Dana) and he knocks Marty clean-out! I had already pictured Marty getting the nod by this point too so when he fell it was almost surreal... like what?! I've never had my jaw hit the floor that long and I was in complete shock for 10 minutes. Crazy. Then that emotional, inspirational speech Leon gave after... just chills. I'll never forget that night and it's easily KO of the Year.

leon-edwards-headshot.gif
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* dominant
 
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