Mixed martial arts fans love a good fight-ending sequence, as often it summarizes the story of the fight in just a few seconds. Getting the finish is a definitive end to a fight that makes a statement: “I was this much better than my opponent at that particular moment in time.”
Every fighter has their go-to moves, especially specialists within certain martial arts disciplines. Their own signature styles that can lead to spectacular finishes. Whether it’s a scary-good rear-naked choke that fighters just can’t seem to avoid once going to the ground or crazy power in a straight left hand that has dropped even granite-chinned fighters with ease, each fighter has a particular finishing move or sequence. Moves that have stuck in fan’s minds and come to define and describe their careers within the cage.
This week we will take a look at some fighters with only a few (5 or less) fights in the UFC, rather than those fighters that are long time UFC veterans with a bunch of finishes with the promotion.
Paulo “The Eraser” Costa (13-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC)
Total Number of Pro MMA Finishes: 12
Via KO/TKO: 11
Via Submission: 1
Total Number of UFC Finishes: 4
Via KO/TKO: 4
(Garreth McLellan, Oluwale Bamgbose, Johny Hendricks, Uriah Hall)
Via Submission: 0
Paulo Costa has a 92.3% win finishing rate in his professional MMA career.
Frankly, Paulo Costa is a finishing machine. Costa is always walking forward and putting pressure on his opponent.
Costa uses his body kicks to cut off his opponent’s lateral movement. Paulo has some amazing punches and opens up his KOs by always going to the body as well as the head.
Costa uses his huge size to his advantage and really has some of the most powerful hands in the middleweight division. In Costa’s last fight against UFC middleweight staple Yoel Romero, he showed just how powerful his hands are when he knocked down the Cuban.
Costa actually came from a decorated jiu-jitsu grappling background so it gives him all the more confidence to come forward and strike without fear of being taken down.
BORRACHINHA!!! @BorrachinhaMMA comes out on FIRE & gets the finish in his UFC debut! #UFCFortaleza pic.twitter.com/TJ0toAJG5l
— UFC (@ufc) March 12, 2017
