It’s only halfway through 2026 but there have already been some truly remarkable knockouts to start the year.
There’s been finishes never seen before, fighters making miraculous comebacks and just about every other kind of knockout imaginable and that’s only through six months of action!
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So without further ado, let’s see what ranked as the top three knockouts thus far in 2026.
No. 1: Alexa Grasso vs. Maycee Barber (UFC Seattle)
After her reign as flyweight champion, Alexa Grasso faced some real adversity in her career following a loss to Natalia Silva that could have put her right back in title contention. So as she sought to return to the win column, Grasso got matched up with Maycee Barber in a rematch after already beating her by unanimous decision back in 2021.
But Grasso had no intention of letting this fight go to the judges because she was gunning for a finish and Barber found that out the hard way.
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Midway through the opening round during an exchange on the feet, Grasso clipped Barber with a slick left hand and then delivered a brutal knockout blow with the right cross behind it. The punch twisted Barber’s entire body around as she fell to the canvas with Grasso immediately latching onto a rear-naked choke with the fight being stopped a split second later.
While the finish could have been ruled a submission considering Grasso actually did lock on the choke, it was pretty clear by replays that Barber was already knocked out from the punch that ended the fight. It was one of the craziest rapid-fire sequences in recent history and Grasso deserves all the credit for such a remarkable knockout.
No. 2: Carlos Ulberg vs. Jiri Prochazka (UFC 327)
By all accounts, Carlos Ulberg shouldn’t be UFC light heavyweight champion right now.
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After Alex Pereira vacated the belt to move to heavyweight, the UFC booked Ulberg against former champion Jiri Prochazka to crown a new champion and it appeared the New Zealand native was destined to lose after he suffered a knee injury early in the opening round.
Disaster struck and Ulberg’s first shot at UFC gold appeared doomed. But even limping and barely able to stand, Ulberg kept fighting but it just felt inevitable that Prochazka was either going to leg kick him to finish the fight or the doctor would stop the bout between rounds once he hopped back to his corner.
Neither of those things happened.
Instead, Prochazka charged forward looking for a highlight reel knockout of his own and instead Ulberg blasted him with a check left-hook that flattened the former champion and sent him crashing in a heap down to the canvas. It was not only an unbelievable knockout but a moment that Ulberg needed because there was almost no chance he would have been allowed to continue after the first round.
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To make the knockout that much more special, Ulberg confirmed afterwards that he suffered a torn ACL in his knee and yet he was still able to pull off the at remarkable finish to become UFC champion.
No. 3: Gabriel Peinado vs. Santiago Gonzales (Empire Championship Series)
It’s not everyday an amateur MMA fight registers one of the best knockouts of the year but that’s exactly what Gabriel Peinado delivered back in March.
In one of the most ridiculous finishes — perhaps ever — Peinado was on his back defending from the guard when he threw an old school Donkey Kong double punch that somehow connected clean on Gonzales. Cleary dazed and confused from the punches landed, Peinado quickly reversed positions to land in the mount and put Gonzales on his back.
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Peinado proceeded to demolish Gonzales with another punch that ended the fight at just 49 seconds into the opening round. Now it’s tough to say if something like this would happen at the highest levels of the sport (probably not) but that doesn’t take away the jaw-dropping finish that Peinado delivered in such shocking fashion.
