Roman Kopylov Knocked Out Claudio Ribeiro With A Vicious Head Kick

Saturday night was a highly anticipated fight night in both the boxing and mixed martial arts world, with Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford fighting to be the undisputed welterweight champion in Las Vegas, while UFC 291 in Salt Lake City was pitting Dustin Poirier against Justin Gaethje for the second time as the main event of a loaded card.

Before the main card even got started, the fireworks began as Roman Kopylov set the bar extremely high for the best knockout of the evening when he sent Claudio Ribeiro to the canvas with an absolutely brutal head kick early in the second round to force a stoppage.

The sound of the kick is just vicious, and the referee tried to jump in before Kopylov could even deliver any strikes on the ground — although he did get one punch in before the referee could fully stop things. The commentary team absolutely loses it cageside, with Daniel Cormier in total disbelief, noting “that was BAD” as Kopylov strode triumphantly around the Octagon. It’s about as clean a head kick as you will ever see and Ribeiro never saw it coming, immediately going out as he fell backwards to the mat. The KO win moved Kopylov to 11-2, while Ribeiro dropped to 11-4 after a painful defeat.