Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Punchers

9. Fedor Emelianenko

Sambo and judo specialist Emelianenko inaugurated his long run as MMA’s best heavyweight and captured the Pride Fighting Championships belt almost entirely through his slick takedowns, brutalizing top control and nose for opportunistic submissions. What cemented his status as the sport’s best big man and one of the greatest fighters of all-time, however, was his eventual development into a vicious knockout artist.

Emelianenko could always drop bombs, but the process of becoming a true puncher is something else entirely. He first showed flashes of this craftier game in his third bout with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, repeatedly landing a long right and looping left hook on his way into and out of his infighting wheelhouse. It was in his epic fight with Mirko Filipovic, however, that the true depth of Emelianenko’s craftiness became clear. He stalked the Croatian around the ring, using slick footwork to repeatedly walk Filipovic into his right hand, and fired off hard combinations whenever the opportunity presented itself.

Ground striking secured the Filipovic fight, but Emelianenko won it on the feet. In his rematch with Mark Coleman two fights later, he dropped the Olympian with a hard flurry in the first round before finishing with an armbar in the second. The basics of Emelianenko’s punching style became clear: Use clever footwork and kicks to herd the opponent into vicious strikes, string shots together in combination and, most importantly, throw hard on clinch entries and exits.

It took Emelianenko only 17 seconds to drop Tim Sylvia with a brutal two-punch combination that began on a break, and a single well-timed shot plucked the leaping Andrei Arlovski from mid-air. A second-round knockout of Brett Rogers followed, and even amidst his three-fight losing streak, Emelianenko still managed to drop Dan Henderson with a heavy shot. By that point, however, his clever tricks and setups had mostly disappeared, and he was far too willing to simply wing punches.

Had he developed his punching style earlier in his illustrious career, Emelianenko might reside much higher on this list, but he still deserves great credit for what he accomplished.

Number 8 » A former baseball pitcher, he had an incredible innate understanding of weight transfer that translated perfectly to winging brutal punches with both hands. He was far from a one-note brawler, however, using a solid jab and mixing up shots to the body and head to draw his opponent’s hands out of position. He phase-shifted beautifully, landing hard strikes off clinch breaks and takedowns.