With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from June 2026: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Month award for June.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
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Nominee: Diego Lopes def. Steve Garcia at UFC Freedom 250
Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia was the fight that many fans thought had the greatest potential for Fight of the Night honors. It didn’t capture that, but it did deliver.
Lopes (28-8 MMA, 7-3 UFC) knocked out Garcia (19-6 MMA, 8-3 UFC) with punches to top off a frantic sequence of violence. It seemed like Garcia was poised to continue his winning streak early, but then Lopes caught him with a big shot and left nothing to chance as he closed the show with heavy ground strikes.
Nominee: Sean O’Malley def. Aiemann Zahabi at UFC Freedom 250
Sean O’Malley produced another phenomenal highlight for his reel on the grandest stage possible when the former UFC champ knocked out Aiemann Zahabi on the White House lawn.
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After Zahabi (14-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) was tentative to exchange through the first round and into the second, O’Malley (20-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) finally found the clean shot he was looking for that rocked the Canadian. He stepped in with another clean punch, then saluted the crowd as Zahabi was staggering and it was waved off.
Nominee: Jake Woodley def. David Wright at LFA 235
Jake Woodley scored one of the greatest regional knockouts in MMA so far this year – and he needed just four seconds to do it.
Middleweight prospect Woodley (8-1) gained some more traction to his name Friday when he scored a devastating four-second knockout of David Wright (6-3). It took just one shot from Woodley, who came out and launched an overhand right that landed clean to the chin of Wright and slumped him to the mat.
Nominee: Rafael Fiziev def. Manuel Torres at UFC Fight Night 280
For the first time in nearly eight years, Manuel Torres had to go to a second round. And while that might not have had anything to do with what came next, the timing is hard to ignore. Just seconds into the second round, Fiziev landed a spinning back kick that dropped Torres.
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Fiziev (14-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) kept the pressure on, and though Torres (17-4 MMA, 5-2 UFC) got back to his feet, it was only to take even worse damage with punches that were on the button until Torres was out on the canvas when Marc Goddard stopped it just 15 seconds into the round.
The winner: Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev def. Julius Walker at UFC Fight Night 280
Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev scored one of the quickest finishes in recent UFC history against Julius Walker.
Yakhyaev (10-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) kept his undefeated record in tact in a mere eight seconds when he rocked Walker (7-3 MMA, 1-3 UFC) with his first punch the landed a few more for good measure to seal the deal.
It was the second-fastest finish in the illustrious history of the UFC light heavyweight division, and adds to the hype around Yakhyaev as he strives to become a true contender in the division.
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Yakhyaev was elated with his performance, but said he wanted to do it quicker. It was the seventh fastest finish overall in UFC history, and Yakhyaev said there’s much more to come.
“I come here to make records,” Yakhyaev said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping. “This is not the fastest, but the second. We will see in the next fight. More and more I will try. The plan was to fight smart, but when I see the moment I take it. UFC now has to give me the top. I am ready.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Month for June: An 8-second special
