Craziest Flying Knee Knockout Ever?

Future FC

Future FC 9 went down on Saturday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil and it featured the return of Jonas “Speed” Bilharinho after three years away from competition. Bilharinho is best known for being the guy who accidentally landed a spinning kick on Jose Aldo in the days leading up to UFC 189 that cracked Aldo’s ribs and delayed his fight with Conor McGregor.

Digging a bit deeper into Bilharinho’s fight career, it’s not all that surprising in retrospect what happened. “Speed” is a wild and creative fighter with several flashy knockouts on his record. He was brought in by Aldo specifically to emulate McGregor’s unorthodox style, but he clearly got a little too Bilharinho the day of that fateful spar. Bad at the time, but we’re happy to report he’s still showcasing the same aggressive style in his first fight since a loss in 2016 drove him to retire.

Not only did he win his comeback fight against Junior Duarte, he dominated it and ended up scoring what I think is one of the best flying knee knockouts I’ve ever witnessed in the sport. Take a look:

The sequence starts with Duarte getting floored by a right hook. He manages to survive that and some ground and pound to get back onto his feet, but he’s obviously hurt. Bilharinho gives him no quarter, barely missing with a punt kick to Duarte’s head before following up with a legendary knee that faceplants his opponent.

In an interview with Combate, Bilharinho explained how he’s evolved mentally over the years away from the sport.

“After the fight with Valdines, I went into a process of searching for self-awareness. I met a guy named Osho. I read a book of his called ‘The Book of the Ego.’ There I realized a kind of knowledge that I didn’t know existed. In two months I read about seven of his books. I read a lot of people. I went deeper into that, in self-awareness.”

“On this trail, I ran into God. But it is not bumping into God symbolically, it is bumping into the living God. I saw God alive. He speaks to me to this day and I have an intimate relationship with God. I try to walk where God sends me. And I went back to MMA because God told me to go back to MMA saying this is the way to my life.”

“Nowadays I can say that I’m a serious guy, I’m not an arrogant boy anymore and now I’m whole. I’m an athlete. The basic difference from fighter to athlete is that the fighter only thinks when he is fighting. I am an athlete all day, I never stop being an athlete.”

The win improves Bilharinho’s record to 7-1 and who knows, maybe this highlight reel knockout puts him back on the radar with the UFC … for better reasons than the last time around! But whether it’s in the UFC or on another Brazilian card, we’re definitely going to be keeping an eye out for the featherweight fighter’s next bout.