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UFC Leaders - Knockdowns Landed

Posted 11:00 AM
The fifth in our series going through the categories on our UFC Official Records page, this post deals with the record holders for the most knockdowns landed in UFC history.

What: This volume or "counting" stat is deceptive in its simplicity. On the one hand, a knockdown seems like a clear-cut event. While that might be true in boxing, where there are defined rules for is considered a "down," MMA makes things much more complicated. In many cases, a fighter who gets rocked will get bowled over by his rushing opponent or will fall forward to attempt a takedown. If the numbers on this list seem low, it's because of the high bar that FightMetric sets when establishing an official knockdown.

Why: Simply put, there is no statistic that has a higher correlation with victory than the knockdown. A fighter who scores a knockdown becomes the overwhelming favorite to win the fight, no matter what people thought coming in to the match. It also usually takes just one knockdown to finish a fight. For a fighter to appear on this list, he has to KO or TKO a lot of opponents.

Who:
RankFighterTotal
1Chuck Liddell14
2Anderson Silva12
3Rich Franklin10
4Thiago Alves9
4Melvin Guillard9
4Lyoto Machida9
7Andrei Arlovski8
7Quinton Jackson8
7Nate Marquardt8
7Jorge Rivera/Georges St-Pierre8

Who's Next: Of the fighters with seven or six career knockdowns who are still active in the UFC, the ones most likely to show up here are Jeremy Stephens, Junior dos Santos, and Cain Velasquez.

The Breakdown: The list contains some of the most consisted knockout artists in UFC history. Unsurprisingly, the top spot is held by Chuck Liddell, the most prolific knockout artist in the UFC during its expansion period leading up to and immediately following The Ultimate Fighter. Coming next is Anderson Silva, the man who took Liddell's mantle as the most feared striker in the UFC.

All these fighters are ones that would be considered veterans of UFC competition. In fact, the only one to appear on this list with less than 10 UFC fights is Quinton Jackson, who has managed eight knockdowns in eight UFC fights.

The Takeaway: One important point: this list is simply a measure of total volume of knockdowns, not a rate statistic. These fighters are the ones who score the most knockdowns regardless of time. A list of fighters with the highest KDpM (knockdowns per minute) would show an entirely different set of fighters. Most of those fighters show up on the list of shortest average fight time. The ones on this list to also appear in the top 10 KDpM are Melvin Guillard and Anderson Silva.

See reports for these fighters