12 Hardest Hitters In UFC Today

9. Lightweight: Takanori Gomi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E_1Jpb8j8k Lightweight might have been the hardest division to look at for this article. First. a guy like B.J. Penn or Frankie Edgar might have been on here, but both have dropped to featherweight (and Penn retired). Nate Diaz is more of a volume puncher. There's T.J. Grant, but until recently he was almost strictly a submission guy. Grey Maynard? Josh Thompson? What about Diego Sanchez? Or champion Anthony Pettis? Eddie Alvarez isn't in the UFC. Nor is Melvin Guillard these days. The one name that really had me thinking: Takanori Gomi. The Fireball Kid. Well known for his power - but he seems to have dropped off in recent years. Still, if you look over the course of his career, Gomi gets it. My other option was Gilbert Melendez. Eleven knockouts over the course of his career. Yes, most of his natural KO's came at the beginning of his run, but that's impressive in itself: in his first three WEC appearances, he scored three pure KO's. Yet, like Gomi, he has dropped off a bit. So overall, at lightweight, Takanori Gomi. Gomi was the only Pride lightweight champion ever, won the 2005 lightweight Grand Prix, was a Shooto champ, had a 12-fight win streak in Shooto, then came to the UFC, where he's been up and down but is always entertaining. He also holds the fasted knockout in Pride history. Over the course of his career, Gomi has 13 TKOs and KOs, over the likes of Jens Pulver, Ralph Gracie, Tyson Griffin (a Knockout of the Night in the UFC) and others.