A lot can happen inside of five minutes, from insane highlight-reel finishes to incredible comebacks.
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When MMA fans think of wars, and classic fights within the sport, they tend to think of fights such as Robbie Lawler vs Rory MacDonald 2, Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz 2 — fights that happen over the course of five hard-fought rounds, that feature dramatic shifts in momentum over the span of 25 minutes. However, some of the greatest fights within the history of the UFC have taken place within a round, that didn't require 25 minutes. In fact, they only required five minutes, in order to be amazing.
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10 Tyron Woodley vs Vincente Luque (UFC 260)
Tyron Woodley headed into UFC 260 on a slide not often seen in MMA. The former welterweight champion hadn't just lost his last three fights, he hadn't even won a single round across the last 15 that he had been inside the cage. Despite this, he promised to let his hands go at UFC 260 against the rising Vincente Luque.
Surprisingly, that's exactly what Woodley did. Woodley came out firing immediately, hurting and stunning Luque early. Woodley went in for the kill, and that's when Luque stunned Woodley even worse. Woodley fired back still and caught Luque with some big shots, but he was still on unsteady legs. Woodley shot for a takedown and was caught in a d'arce choke and was forced to tap.
Despite the bout lasting under four minutes, the bout won fight of the night.
9 Brock Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez (UFC 121)
Brock Lesnar's title defense at UFC 121 against Cain Velasquez didn't go well for the Beast, but it was still an incredible fight.
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Lesnar shot across the cage to get the quick takedown and got it, but Velasquez bounced right back up, and the two began furiously brawling in the clinch. The two separated and Lesnar went for a flying knee, which didn't land. Eventually, Velasquez hurt Lesnar and he searched for the finish, while Lesnar did his best to survive. Lesnar eventually succumbed to the damage near the end of the round, and Velasquez was crowned champion.
8 Ronda Rousey vs Liz Carmouche (UFC 157)
Ronda Rousey and Liz Carmouche were a part of the first-ever women's fight in UFC, and it was a great one. Rousey was a massive favorite going in and she went through quite a scare.
Rousey opened the fight sprinting across the cage to try and get a takedown. Instead, Carmouche reversed position in the clinch and got Rousey's back, and was dangerously close to locking in a rear-naked choke. Rousey ended up escaping and getting to side control where she ended up pounding on Liz and soon worked her way to an armbar to finish the bout.
7 Stipe Miocic vs Alistair Overeem (UFC 203)
Stipe Miocic's first title defense in his hometown of Cleveland gave the Ohioan quite the scare.
Miocic came out calm, as did the challenger Overeem. Howeve, Overeem quickly cracked Miocic and sent him down hard. Overeem looked for the guillotine submission finish, but it gave Miocic the time to recover. Soon, Miocic started chasing down Overeem looking for the finish, which he would get after taking Overeem down and pounding him out to get the first-round knockout.
6 John Lineker vs Francisco Rivera (UFC 191)
John Lineker vs. Francisco Rivera may have only lasted a bit over two minutes, but it was pure chaos.
Lineker opened up early and hurt Rivera badly a minute in. Rather than cover up or evade, Rivera decided to stand in the pocket and aimlessly swing for the fences, and caught Lineker clean a couple of different times. Eventually, Lineker hurt and dropped Rivera badly and jumped on with a guillotine choke to end the fight. Not the best of strategies for Rivera to employ, but it gave us a fun couple of minutes.
5 Frank Mir vs Antonio Nogueira 2 (UFC 140)
Frank Mir and Antonio Nogueira's rematch at UFC 140 was nothing short of a legendary fight featuring two heavyweight greats.
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Nogueira opened up and hurt Mir early, and sent him spiraling down to the canvas. Nogueira, rather than go for ground and pound, opted to submit Mir, going for a guillotine attempt to end the fight. However, Mir scrambled out of the fight, and at the end of the ensuing scramble, Mir landed on top in side control where he looked for a submission attempt of his own. Grabbing ahold of Nogueira's arm and cranking a kimura, Mir broke Nogueira's arm to complete the comeback and get the win.
4 Donald Cerrone vs Melvin Guillard (UFC 150)
Donald Cerrone's homecoming in Denver at UFC 150 was an insane minute and change.
Cerrone's opponent Melvin Guillard came out and hurt Cerrone in the opening seconds. Cerrone did his best to recover as Guillard blitzed and nearly got him out of there, but Cerrone quickly composed himself and then ended the fight with a head kick a few moments later, earning fight of the night honors in only 76 seconds.
3 Andrei Arlovski vs Travis Browne (UFC 186)
Arlovski vs. Browne was a battle of former training partners with title hopes. Despite their friendship, they went on to have one of the greatest one-round fights in MMA history.
Arlovski came out and hurt Browne early and seemed on the verge of a first-round knockout, landing big combinations before he was sent down to the canvas by a wild hook by Browne. Browne then looked for a finish before being caught by a shot by Arlovski. Arlovski then landed a few more big shots before getting the first-round finish in a rock-em, sock-em first-round war.
2 Matt Hughes vs Frank Trigg 2 (UFC 52)
Matt Hughes and Frank Trigg's rematch at UFC 52 was a battle of bitter rivals for the welterweight strap, and it delivered on excitement.
Hughes got hurt early by Trigg, in large part thanks to a groin strike in the clinch missed by the referee. As Trigg chased down Hughes, he landed some ground and pound before getting a rear-naked choke. Despite Hughes' face turning red in the choke, he somehow escaped, picked up Trigg, and ran across the octagon to slam him down. Hughes then started landing ground and pound before getting a rear-naked-choke of his own to complete the comeback and win the fight.
1 Cheick Kongo vs Pat Barry (UFC Live: Kongo vs Barry)
One of the greatest comebacks of all time is naturally one of the greatest one-round fights of all time.
Barry quickly navigated the height and reach advantage and dropped Kongo with a right hook. Kongo was hurt badly, and as Barry poured on the strikes Kongo was wobbling and rolling all across the octagon. He couldn't keep his balance as Barry seemed to be close to the finish. Eventually, Kongo put some distance between them as he rose to his feet on unsteady legs. Barry marched forward, but was caught with a left hook that hurt him. Kongo then landed another left hook that dropped Barry bad, and Kongo then jumped on the ground and pound to put Barry out cold and end the fight.