Brazilian lightweight dazzles MMA world with vicious KO

The best knockout of the year in mixed martial arts happened 14 days into 2012. http://www.themmadigest.com has selected Edson Barboza's spinning wheel kick knockout over Terry Etim at UFC 142 on January 14th as the knockout of the year. The spectacular knockout by Barboza, the first of its kind in the UFC, took place in the Brazilian's hometown of Rio de Janeiro. In the third round of his battle with Etim, Barboza threw a leg kick, reset, and then fired off an outstanding spinning wheel kick to the face off Etim, which sent the Brit down unconscious .

"Edson Barboza's knockout was a perfect blend of supreme creativity, flawless execution of technique, pinpoint accuracy, and tremendous power", says Ashutosh Jha co-founder of http://www.ChatMMA.com and Jatinder Dhoot of http://www.themmadigest.com . "The knockout is not only the best of 2012, but arguably the greatest in UFC history."

Barboza, who combines Muay Thai and Taekwondo techniques inside the cage, began his MMA career in 2009 after a successful 28-3 record in Muay Thai kickboxing bouts. Barboza has gone 10-1 since that time in MMA and scored three of those victories in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Barboza is expected to face Justin Salas on January 19, 2013 at UFC on FX 7 at the Ibirapuera Arena in São Paulo, Brazil.

Congratulations to Edson Barboza for his knockout of the year award and best of luck in 2013!

To discuss this and other great knockouts of 2012, as well as Fighter of the Year, Fight of the Year, and other MMA topics, visit http://www.themmadigest.com