Just a couple of years ago, compiling a list like this one was a much more simple process. When a devastating knockout took place, it stuck in the minds of fans and stayed there.
These days, it seems like something spectacularly brutal happens every weekend, only to get buried under more violence seven days later.
Of course, more televised fights is never a reason to complain, but it’s hard not to get jaded by seeing a steady stream of hard trauma and forget how devastating these blows really are. Many times one hit is all it takes to drastically change a fighter’s whole career.
There was a long list of eye-catching knockouts this year—and there’s still one UFC event to take place before 2012—but these 10 stick out in my mind as the best of 2011.