July's Leading Five Powerful UFC Knockouts
In the world of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), July 2025 was a month to remember for its notable knockouts. These spectacular finishes showcased uncommon techniques and underdog victories, making for an exciting spectacle for fans.
Leading the charge was Quintin Van Jaarsveld, the former MDDA-Sanlam SA Local Sports Journalist of the Year and a three-time Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal Sports Journalist of the Year. With over 15 years of experience as a freelance sports writer, Van Jaarsveld currently serves as a senior staff writer at Rugby365.com.
In the UFC octagon, several fighters demonstrated their prowess with a variety of techniques, including hands, feet, elbows, and knees. Carli Judice made history as the first female fighter in UFC history to earn finishes by both kick and knee, delivering a crushing knee to the body at UFC 318.
Another standout knockout at UFC 318 was delivered by Islam Dulatov, a model-turned-fighter. Dulatov showcased his precision with a perfectly timed check left hook, which he used to drop Adam Fugitt. The knockout did not cause Dulatov any damage.
At UFC Abu Dhabi, Bogdan Guskov punched his ticket to the light heavyweight top 10 by taking out Nikita Krylov. Meanwhile, Muslim "The King of Kung Fu" Salikhov produced a vicious one-punch walk-off knockout to crush Carlos Leal in just 42 seconds.
Tabatha "Baby Shark" Ricci also made waves at UFC Abu Dhabi, celebrating Shark Week with a sensational knockout. Ricci used a rare up elbow and ground-and-pound to finish Amanda Ribas.
The list of best knockouts for the month also includes a sequence of kicks—low, middle, then high—that capitalized on a faint to the body shot, causing the opponent to raise their guard and setting up a clean high kick finish. Viral knockouts by fighters with KO ratios exceeding 85–90% were also prevalent, demonstrating single punches or strikes that ended fights abruptly.
Knockouts from title fights and main events were particularly memorable, with unexpected fighters delivering sniper-like precision strikes to overpower more established opponents. These finishes were captured in videos compiled in July 2025, featuring these highlights across weight classes and including emphasis on raw power and precision in UFC knockouts to date this year.
These compilations often spotlight fighters who use less common techniques like nuanced feints or unusual targeting of the body combined with kicks and punches, which deviate from typical knockout patterns. As a result, the best UFC knockouts of the month notably feature some underdog wins and utilize uncommon striking techniques such as strategic body fakes leading to high kicks and single-punch finishes by highly efficient KO artists in the UFC as of mid-2025.
In a memorable month for the UFC, Mitch Ramirez was finished by a flying knee from Mike Davis in the Music City. The knockouts at UFC 318 were also notable events in the month of action. All in all, July 2025 was a month that showcased the diversity and excitement of the UFC.
- Quintin Van Jaarsveld, the accomplished sports journalist, closely followed the diverse techniques used by UFC fighters in July 2025, a month known for its uncommon knockouts.
- Carli Judice, a trailblazer in UFC history, demonstrated her mixed-martial-arts prowess by earning finishes with both a kick and a knee, a feat that added to the sports' excitement in July 2025.
- Islam Dulatov, the model-turned-fighter, delivered a stunning knockout at UFC 318 with a precise check left hook, showcasing the sport's unpredictable nature and the potential for underdog victories in sports betting.
