Edson Barboza’s UFC knockouts, ranked

In what was a memorable UFC debut, Barboza stepprd onto the scene with a vicious leg-kick TKO over Mike Lullo.

Lullo, who was stepping in for an injured Darren Elkins, was a scrappy submission grappler who did everything within his power to force Barboza into a ground fight.

Barboza was able to dictate the grappling traffic fairly easily by smartly looking for his spots to separate. And once Barboza got to space standing, it was essentially open season on Lullo’s entire body.

Leg-kick stoppages weren’t exactly a new concept at this time (as the aforementioned Marco Ruas set the standard back at UFC 7 opposite Paul Varelans), but Barboza’s kicks brought thudding explosions that even heavyweights like Antoni Hardonk had to tip his hat to. In fact, a friend of mine was in the audience that night and said that he can still hear the sounds of Barboza’s kicks playing in his head.

Although this could easily be higher on this list, it felt like a solid place to start.