There is something about the knockout that interests everyone regardless of whether or not they are combat sports fans. There are those that find combat sports brutal, barbaric, violent, and unnecessary but those normally tend to be middle aged soccer moms or older women. By and large, 16 to 95 year old men across the board love a good knockout.
Believe it or not there is a vast differentiation in knockouts. For now, we are going to disregard the technical knockout, or TKO, and focus on the good old-fashioned KO. This is the type of knockout where a person literally goes unconscious and there is a period of time in which they have lost; meaning there is no recollection of that moment and his body completely shut off. These last from milliseconds to minutes and can be as brutal as they are subtle.
In today’s list we look at one of the most interesting and humorous knockout: the rare cases were fighters actually knock themselves out! You read that right, the following is a list of 5 UFC fighters who have knocked themselves out.
5) Tim Means vs. The Sauna
In one of the more rare self-knockouts, this one did not take place in the octagon and as a matter of the fact Tim The Dirty Bird Means did not even make it to the weigh-ins. Means was forced to pull out of his fight with Abel Trujillo on the day of the weigh-ins at UFC On FOX 5 in 2012, after he knocked himself out while cutting weight in the hotel sauna! The Dirty Bird had this to say about the incident:
I never went out, but I had like tunnel vision, Means told MMAJunkie. I got real fuzzy, and I was like, ‘What the f— was that?’
I sat up, and I felt like the skin on my head was getting tight. I felt my head, and I had a big knot behind my ear. I got dizzy, and I walked outside, and I guess I kind of fell on the floor on my hands and knees. I was out of it.
4) Jamie Varner vs. Drew Dober
Jamie Varner’s retirement fight against Drew Dober at UFC On FOX 13 in 2014 was supposed to be one in which he could end his career on a high note. Coming into this fight he was coming off of three straight losses and had only won one of his last 5. A decent wrestler, Varner attempted the highly technical and difficult belly-to-belly suplex. This maneuver not only requires you to lift your opponent over your head but also that you twist in such a way you land on top of your opponent.
Well things didn’t necessarily go according to plan and Varner did not quite execute this dangerous maneuver the way it should and in the process he ended up knocking himself out cold! The ref didn’t notice so the fight continued on for another minute with the dazed Varner submitting to a rear-naked choke.
3) Gray Maynard vs Rob Emerson
An excellent Division I wrestler who competed at Michigan State University, Gray “The Bully Maynard made his way to the UFC by competing on The Ultimate Fighter Season 5, losing out to eventual winner Nate Diaz in the semifinals. Throughout the show it was very evident that wrestling was The Bully’s strong point and most of his game plan was to simply ragdoll his opponents and then institute devastating ground and pound.
Maynard was then booked to fight Rob Emerson, another TUF 5 alum, at TUF 5 finale during the summer of 2007. The game plan for Maynard was simple and one he had employed many times before and that is exactly how the fight was going: Maynard using his wrestling to control Emerson.
Well, then things went awry: At the beginning of the second round Maynard lifted Emerson high into the air and slammed him down hard to the canvas but forgot to get his head out of the way first. This consequently knocked him out cold and with both men dazed and confused the fight was declared a no-contest.
2) Matt Lindland vs. Falaniko Vitale
Matt Lindland is one of the most decorated wrestlers ever to have fought in the UFC, having won a silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Olympics and to this day is said to be an absolute animal in the wrestling room oftentimes giving some of the nation’s top competitors big problems. However; as Demetrius Johnson told Henry Cejudo, this isn’t the Olympics and this isn’t wrestling.
In has match with Falaniko Vitale at UFC 43, Lindland planned on putting his Olympic caliber wrestling on full display. Early on in the fight, Lindland attempted a belly-to-belly suplex which would have been an absolutely beautiful manuevar, however; Lindland didn’t quite get Vitale all the way over, didn’t quite twist far enough, and landed directly on his back with the full weight of Vitale landing directly on top of him which knocked Lindland out cold in the process.
1) Kevin Randleman vs. the infamous pipe
The late Kevin Randleman holds the dubious distinction of being the first UFC fighter to ever knock himself out, that and the surrounding circumstances is what gives The Monster the top spot on our list.
Randleman was the UFC’s heavyweight champion heading into his headlining title fight with Pedro Rizzo at UFC 24 in 2000, but a bizarre accident backstage forced the fight to be cancelled at the last minute. Randleman had been warming up in his locker room before the fight as he had no doubt done countless times before when he somehow managed to slip on a pipe backstage and knocked himself out on the concrete floor beneath him!
Being unable to compete, the UFC had no choice but to cancel the main event bringing an abrupt ending to the show which was airing on pay-per-view for the entertainment of millions of people all over the world.
