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“Pound-for-pound. Headshot. Dead.” Leon Edwards’ stunning finish of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 is MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Year for 2022.
With another action-packed year of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie takes a look at the best knockouts from January to December 2022.
As voted on by our entire staff, here are the top 10 and winner of MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Year.
Ahead of his main event clash with Thiago Santos, relive Jamahal Hill’s finish of Johnny Walker at UFC Fight Night 201.
[autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] continued to show off his power when he squared off with Johnny Walker.
In his first UFC headliner, Hill faced Walker in the main event of UFC Fight Night 201 in February and lived up to his “Sweet Dreams” nickname with a standout showing.
Walker opened up with a front kick to the body and a leg kick after he was advised by his corner to stay long. Both men exchanged high kicks, and a spinning attack by Walker lead to a heated exchange in the pocket.
But Hill continued to stalk Walker and a little more than three minutes into Round 1, he starched the Brazilian with an overhand right. Walker fell down with a slight delayed reaction, but was out cold once he crashed to the canvas.
Hill (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) returns to action Saturday when he takes on former title challenger [autotag]Thiago Santos[/autotag] (22-10 MMA, 14-9 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN 40 main event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+.
Before he faces Santos, relive Hill’s finish of Walker in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 40.
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Jamahal Hill doesn’t appreciate what he’s seen from fans following his knockout of Johnny Walker and is urging them to stop.
[autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] doesn’t appreciate what he’s seen from fans following his win over [autotag]Johnny Walker[/autotag] and is urging them to knock it off.
Hill (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) scored a first-round knockout of Walker in this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 201 headliner where Walker had a delayed reaction to a right hand before awkwardly falling backward and crashing to the canvas.
Fans were quick to criticize and mock Walker for getting knocked out, which has infuriated Hill. This past year at UFC 263, Hill was on the receiving end of a tough loss himself when Paul Craig snapped his arm en route to a first-round TKO. A charged-up Hill took to social media to blast the fans for going after Walker in a two-minute public service announcement.
“I do what I do for the entertainment of the fans and the love of the sport,” Hill said. “And whenever I’m successful, and I get a knockout and have these moments that y’all like, bro, don’t use that time to dog somebody. I’ve lost, so I’ve received the ridicule and the things that come with that, and I understand that people are ignorant. But I can only imagine how y’all doing my man right now, and that sh*t ain’t cool. That sh*t ain’t cool. Think about if that was you.”
PSA REAL SHIT!!!pic.twitter.com/UOjucb6NWO
— Jamahal Hill (@JamahalH) February 23, 2022
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Walker (18-7 MMA, 4-4 UFC) also took issue with fans’ reaction in a video that he shared on his his YouTube channel.
“What’s making me really upset is f*cking people don’t care about the fighter’s health,” Walker said. “What happened after, you know. They just care about the pictures and make the jokes. What makes me upset was people message me and comment like the jokes. People don’t care about other people healthy.
“I train so hard. I am very committed to my career and when I get to the fight and make my best to make the show for the fans. And if I get hurt or something like that happens, people just make jokes about the knockout. They don’t care about my health even if I have brain damage or if I’m OK.”
Watch Walker open up about his loss to Hill in the video below:
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Abdul Razak Alhassan had to battle through some adversity before and during his fight with Joaquin Buckley.
[autotag]Abdul Razak Alhassan[/autotag] had to battle through some adversity before and during his fight with [autotag]Joaquin Buckley[/autotag].
Alhassan (11-5 MMA, 5-5 UFC) lost a split decision to Buckley in the main card opener of this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 201 event, marking his fourth loss in his past five outings.
But Alhassan revealed that an array of unfortunate circumstances and injuries made his training camp difficult, almost forcing him to pull out of the fight. Not only that, but Alhassan says he broke his rib in Round 2 of his fight against Buckley.
“This fight business sucks!! Not to make any excuses or take it away from my opponent this fight camp sucked!!!! Got cut right above my eye right before camp! Had 8 stitches, and the eye got infected so even took way long to heal. Middle of the camp I injured my back and couldn’t even get out of bed through the whole camp! 4 weeks before fight I got COVID which took me outta commission for almost 2 weeks. Week before the fight I injured my right hand before the fight. Light the universe is telling me not to take this fight. But as you know there’s no back down in this guy, so I went for it. And don’t regret it. Also broke a rib in the second round with the take down. But I really wish I could have just done a lil more. Love my coaches and my team!!!! I feel so blessed to have people them like around me. We will come back strong and stack up those victories! Trust me! I swear I will be like kakai to them. They will hear my name and hide!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaOQY8-s_1o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Despite breaking his rib in Round 2, Alhassan was able to impressively win Round 3 on all three judges’ scorecards. But unfortunately for the 36-year-old, it wasn’t enough to win him the fight.
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Monday’s edition of MMA Junkie Radio with “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” is here.
Monday’s edition of MMA Junkie Radio with “Gorgeous” George and “Goze” is here.
On Episode 3,236, the boys welcome guest [autotag]Diego Sanchez[/autotag], who fights Kevin Lee at Eagle FC 46. They also looked back at UFC Fight Night 201, Bellator 274 and BKFC. Tune in!
Stream or download this and all episodes of MMA Junkie Radio over at OmnyStudio. You can also catch it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more. A new episode of the podcast is released every Monday and Thursday.
Jamahal Hill has sent Volkan Oezdemir a stern warning.
[autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] has sent [autotag]Volkan Oezdemir[/autotag] a stern warning.
Following Hill’s spectacular first-round knockout of Johnny Walker in this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 201 headliner, it seemed just about everybody was impressed – except Oezdemir.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaN1d4rrGPd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
But Hill (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who has the self-proclaimed best hands in the UFC, thinks Oezdemir would suffer the same fate as his past two opponents, Walker and Jimmy Crute, who he dispatched of in one round.
“I mean that understandable with the brain damage you took in your last 2 fights!!! (1 against a guy making his debut) My hands will change your life think it’s a game and fuck around and find out!!!”
I mean that understandable with the brain damage you took in your last 2 fights!!! (1 against a guy making his debut) My hands will change your life think it's a game and fuck around and find out!!! https://t.co/XgoWIkdIFj
— Jamahal Hill (@JamahalH) February 21, 2022
“I’m dead I can’t wait to sleep all yall hero’s cuz yall clearly don’t know the game or what your seeing!!! I’m done speaking on it just wait on it!”
I'm dead I can't wait to sleep all yall hero's cuz yall clearly don't know the game or what your seeing!!! I'm done speaking on it just wait on it!
— Jamahal Hill (@JamahalH) February 21, 2022
After a fast rise in the UFC which led to a quick title shot, Oezdemir (17-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC) has earned mixed results. The 32-year-old Swiss fighter is coming off back-to-back losses to current title challenger Jiri Prochazka and rising contender Magomed Ankalaev but is currently ranked several spots ahead of Hill in the UFC’s light heavyweight standings.
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Johnny Walker is in good spirits after suffering a brutal knockout in the UFC Fight Night 201 main event.
[autotag]Johnny Walker[/autotag] is in good spirits after suffering a brutal knockout in the UFC Fight Night 201 main event.
Walker (18-7 MMA, 4-4 UFC) lost another key fight in his career Saturday when he was caught by a devastating punch in the first round of his light heavyweight bout with Jamahal Hill (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. He went down in a heap when the shot landed, then took another hard blow to cap off the fight.
The Brazilian now is 1-4 in his past five fights over the past three years. He’s lost back-to-back main events, to boot, but that apparently hasn’t dampened Walker’s spirits.
After the fight, Walker posted a health update on social media and acknowledged his mistakes (via Instagram):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaMSP2ugISB/
“I’m OK,” Walker said. “Just a little cut. I (go to) sleep in the fight, so something happened wrong.”
Walker was surrounded by friends, coaches and teammates at the UFC host hotel after the knockout loss. He said he intends to shift focus to his next fight, but given the violent nature of the knockout, it remains to be seen when, where and against whom he’ll get back in the octagon.
“Let’s eat and be happy,” Walker said. “And let’s go to the next one.”
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Jamahal Hill says his knockout of Johnny Walker at UFC Fight Night 201 was just the tip of the iceberg.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] says his knockout of Johnny Walker at UFC Fight Night 201 was just the tip of the iceberg of what he plans to do to ranked light heavyweights.
Hill (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) added another spectacular highlight to his reel Saturday when he flattened Walker (18-7 MMA, 4-4 UFC) in the first round of the headlining bout at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It was a brutal finish. Walker went flying back into the cage before getting his lights put out by a final blow.
To Hill, however, it was just clean work.
“Whenever it landed, I seen him kind of wobble,” Hill told MMA Junkie at the UFC Fight Night 201 post-fight news conference. “When I seen him wobble like that, I knew I had to get in and put another one on him and finish him.”
Hill, 30, now has back-to-back wins over notable names at 205 pounds in Walker and Jimmy Crute. He needed less than four minutes of total cage time to dispatch the two of them, and now he’s on an upward trajectory in the weight class.
He doesn’t know exactly what he wants next, but Hill said there are plenty more knockouts to dish out.
“I don’t know (who is next), man,” Hill said. “I feel like the division is a little tired, and ‘Sweet Dreams’ is here to provide some naps.”
The only thing Hill can say with certainty is that his goal is to hold the UFC belt. He next scheduled title fight in the division takes place at UFC 274 on May 7, when Glover Teixeira clashes with Jiri Prochazka.
Hill said Prochazka is something of a dream opponent for him, and he thinks an eventual fight between them – title or not – would be something special.
“The reason I want Jiri so bad is I feel like that’s a fight that from both ends, it would be a banger,” Hill said. “It would be a banger. I think it would be promoted well. Not too many other people have that star ability. I feel like I talk well, I feel like I dress well, I feel like I fight well. I feel like I’ve got that swag. I feel like he was one of those guys.”
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While the expectations for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 201 were a bit lessened following a canceled main event, four fighters earned big.
LAS VEGAS – While the expectations for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 201 event were a bit lessened following a canceled main event, the replacement headliner delivered, as did a few other thrilling contests.
Rather than go with a traditional Fight of the Night award, UFC officials elected to hand out two addition Performance of the Night awards, and of course headliner [autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] was one of them following his devastating first-round knockout of Johnny Walker.
Check out below to see who all earned a bonus for their performance on Saturday at the UFC Apex.
See the top Twitter reactions to Jamahal Hill’s win over Johnny Walker in the UFC Fight Night 201 main event.
[autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] secured his first main event win on Saturday when he beat [autotag]Johnny Walker[/autotag] at UFC Fight Night 201.
Hill (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) added to his near-perfect record with a first-round knockout victory over Walker (18-7 MMA, 4-4 UFC) in the matchup of ranked UFC light heavyweights, which took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Check below for the top Twitter reactions to Hill’s victory over Walker at UFC Fight Night 201
