We continue the 2008 MMA HQ MMA Awards today with the Knockout of the Year. Year after year, this category easily has the largest group of nominees and is consistently the hardest category to narrow down to three top choices. My picks for this years KO of the year are based more on significance than on brute force and destruction.

Knockout of the Year
1. Tyler Bryan vs. Shaun Parker – You may be asking yourself “who the heck are Tyler Bryan and Shaun Parker?” Both fighters made their professional MMA debut at the Legends of Fighting 25 event this past May. What happened will probably never be seen again in professional MMA. What made the end of the fight even more spectacular was special guest referee Shonie Carter’s reaction. Here is the video so you all can see why this grabs the top Knockout of the Year honors.
2. Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva – Any type of victory for Quinton Jackson against Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92 was going to be big. To defeat an arch-rival and nemesis who had already defeated Jackson twice before would be a big confidence boost, but for Jackson to send Silva to the canvas with a devastating left hook and keep him lying there for several minutes was amazing. The significance of the former UFC light heavyweight champ bouncing back from defeat to Forrest Griffin and recent troubles with the law in the brutal fashion that he did against Wanderlei Silva earns Quinton Jackson the No. 2 spot for KO of the year.
3. Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell – Rashad Evans still doesn’t get much respect in the MMA world even now that he is the UFC light heavyweight champion. For whatever reason, Rashad Evans still has his doubters, but you can bet that Chuck Liddell isn’t counted among their ranks. Liddell was coming off a hard fought decision victory against Wanderlei Silva and was looking to get back into the hunt for his former light heavyweight title. Rashad Evans had his own title aspirations however and quickly put a devastating to Liddell’s plans with a nice KO early in the second round. Liddell landed hard and was clearly knocked out cold. A significant KO victory for a quickly rising star, and a significant KO loss for an aging icon.

With so many great knockouts in 2008 I need to also mention some of the great KO’s that were on my top 10 list: Anthony Johnson’s headkick KO against Kevin Burns, Anthony Johnson’s brutal destruction of Tommy Speers, Josh Koscheck’s vicious KO against Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Gegard Mousasi’s beautiful up-kick against Ronaldo Souza, Rory Markham’s come from behind KO against Brody Farber, and last but not least Frank Mir handing Antonio Nogueira the first KO loss of his career.

Tomorrow we’ll cover the 2008 Breakout Fighter of the Year.