2021 was a great year for mixed martial arts (MMA), all things considered. After COVID-19 halted event for a total of four months, Bellator MMA got up and running and held its first event of the yer in April.
During the nine months since, the promotion provided fight fans with great fights that had several knockout finishes. Before Scott Coker and Co. get ready to tackle 2022, let’s take a look back at all of the best knockouts of this past year.
From Cris Cyborg stopping Leslie Smith with one second remaining in the first round to retain her featherweight title, Paul Daley knocking out Sabah Homasi in devastating fashion to Liz Carmouche stunning Kana Watanabe there were several memorable knockouts that will be played over and over for years to come. But as impressive as some of those were, they weren’t good enough to make it into the Top 10.
Check out who made the cut:
10: Gadzhi Rabadanov knocks out Daniel Carey at Bellator 263
9. Josh Hill demolishes Jarred Scoggins at Bellator 272
8. Patricky Freire ices Peter Queally at Bellator 270
7. Ben Parrish steamrolls Christian Edwards at Bellator 266
6. Diana Avasaragova sleeps Tara Graff at Bellator 266
5. Cris Cyborg sacks Sinead Kavanagh at Bellator 271
4. Anthony Johnson lays out Jose Augusto at Bellator 258
3. Roman Faraldo creams Robert Turnquist at Bellator 271
2. Fedor Emelianenko annihilates Timothy Johnson at Bellator 269
1. Sergio Pettis stuns Kyoji Horiguchi with spinning backfist at Bellator 272
Bellator will return on January 29, 2022 to stage Bellator 273 inside the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona which will be headlined by a heavyweight title unification bout between division champion Ryan Bader and interim title holder, Valentin Moldavsky.
Furthermore, Gegar Mousasi will defend his middleweight title against Austin Vanderford on Feb. 25 in Dublin, while the promotion will also put a bow in its Light Heavyweight Grand Prix later in the year when Corey Anderson takes on Vadim Nemkov in the finals.
Also, once that wraps the Bantamweight Grand Prix will begin featuring eight of the best 135-pound fighters on the roster to potentially crown a new champion.
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