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Saturday night in New York, top ranked UFC middleweight Yoel Romero returned to the Octagon following his brief suspension to fight former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in a pivotal middleweight matchup that would crown the next middleweight #1 contender.
The fight appeared to be tied at one round each going into the third round, where Romero landed a devastating flying knee that not only knocked ‘The All American’ out cold, but also opened up a massive massive cut on the side of his head, resulting in blood pouring out of Weidman’s head onto the canvas in a horrific moment.
Interestingly enough however, a closer examination of the fight reveals brilliant fight IQ by Romero. Check it out:
In the first round, Romero fakes the flying knee, gauging Weidman’s reaction to the technique. Weidman immediately sees the potential flying knee coming and level changes for a takedown, which Romero stuffs with ease. In addition, Romero recognized Weidman’s error in his reaction to the flying knee.
In the third round, Romero fakes the takedown, before then throwing the flying knee, this time actually taking flight. Weidman once again instantly level changes to shoot for a takedown, moving his head directly into the path of Romero’s knee as the two collided, resulting in the horrific knockout and frightening cut that left fight fans nauseated.
In the video above you can see the full breakdown of Romero’s impressive KO win, as well as the setup for the flying knee that ended the fight.
With the win, Romero is now the middleweight #1 contender, and has set himself up for a title fight with Michael Bisping, who was in attendance at the event, which resulted in a rather hilarious exchange between the two as Romero used his post-fight Octagon interview to call out Bisping, as the champ gave him the finger from the Fox Sports 1 booth.
The flying knee KO was certainly one of the most devastating of all time, however where would you rank it among your all-time favorite KOs? Give us your thoughts below PENN Nation!