PFL News & FeaturesSherdog Smashes: More Spins Than a Washing Machine
Everyone who calls themselves a self-respecting fight fan should follows a number of noteworthy accounts on social media. Whether for combat sports news, wild happenings or bonkers highlights, there is something for everybody. We want to give you the latter of those three in this new series with the working title Sherdog Smashes. What is it? A feast of carnage worthy of those seated on the “Just Bleed” throne.
With no UFC in town on July 4th weekend, the Professional Fighters League ruled the day with two shows jam-packed with highlight after highlight. There are not one but two stunners from the league’s Friday and Saturday events worthy of “Knockout of the Year” consideration. Normally, major organizations would miss this list, but try to beat them with someone on the regionals the last few days.
OH MY! FLYING KNEE KO! 🤯🤯
— PFL (@PFLMMA) July 4, 2025
Islam Youssef with the highlight reel knockout!
📱Download the PFL App FOR FREE and watch all the @PFLMENA action go down LIVE from Riyadh pic.twitter.com/YGEfeNIJEx
Undercard? Missed weight? First appearance for a major org? No problem for Islam Youssef, who obliterated Benyamin Ghahraman with a flying head kick. You want to graduate from mid-tier Egyptian leagues Evolution Championship and Alexandria Fighting Club? This is how you do it.
Não deu chance!🥊⚡
— Combate (@combate) July 5, 2025
Gustavo Oliveira encaixou uma cotovelada de baixo pra cima e nocauteou Anas Azizoun ainda no primeiro round! Explosão total no cage! #PFLnoCombate pic.twitter.com/ZY3lNKOF1C
Putting every single other bantamweight in the PFL Europe roster on notice, one-time KSW vet Gustavo Oliveira blew Anas Azizoun away with the cleanest spinning back elbow one will see. Mahio Campanella emulated that later, and fight fans will get the chance to watch those two whirling dervishes clash together like pucks from the Crossfire board game.
HIGHLIGHT-REEL KO 🎞️ Gingsanglek starches Alexey Balyko in 53 seconds with an insane spinning backfist!#ONEFridayFights115 | 🔴 LIVE NOW
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) July 4, 2025
🌍 Live TV broadcast in 190+ countries (check local listings)
🌍 Also available on ONE YouTube and ONE Facebook (geo-restrictions may apply)… pic.twitter.com/8gSPHtxhNW
Say what we want about the internal strife and funding catastrophes going down at One Championship, their Friday Fight series composed mostly of regional muay thai is, as the kids say, fire. Go through any random weekly Friday Fight card of theirs, watch the mayhem and then try to suggest that it was not entertaining. It might not be relevant on the world stage, but—to paraphrase Sherdog editor Ben Duffy—the Lumpinee Stadium needs to contract out produce trucks rather than ambulances based on how badly guys and gals get knocked out in muay thai in little gloves.
How did this end up here?
20 second spinning back fist KO by 6-1 Kamal Guseynov #OCTAGON75 pic.twitter.com/NKycQwEXzF
— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) July 6, 2025
This year might be the year of “So we’re throwing spinning s—t now?” If you want to watch chaos and destruction, look no further than Octagon 75, which presented 13 stoppages across its 15 fights. Even though a north-south choke came out in the headliner, no stoppage that night came more brutal than Kamal Guseynov slumping Mavlonbek Mirkomilov in 17 seconds. Not bad for an up-and-comer celebrating six first-round finishes in their first six victories.
/／
— KNOCK OUT（ノックアウト）公式 (@kb_knockout) July 5, 2025
📣ヤバすぎる木村の"衝撃の失神KO"！🔥
今すぐYouTubeで視聴する！👇#KOFhttps://t.co/iSFpslvyyw
＼
優勝賞金100万円 THE KNOCK OUT FIGHTER UNLIMITED -66.0kg1DAYトーナメント準々決勝
🟥 木村 亮彦
ーーー🆚ーーー
🟦 守谷 佑介
賞金1万獲得のチャンス！勝敗予想に参加👇… pic.twitter.com/dTgvbpk63H
We’re not sure exactly how to classify this next one. Japanese organization Knockout’s Rebel Series ran its fourth event on Saturday, with a tournament containing a cherrypicked rule set. Over one night, eight men battled it out wearing modified gloves, competing under the framework of kickboxing. When a knockdown occurred, athletes could deliver ground-and-pound, soccer kicks and even knees and stomps to downed opponents. Unsurprisingly, it was nuts. The biggest, baddest finish? Akihiro Kimura faceplanting Yusuke Moriya.
robot battle in Kunlun Fight 104 pic.twitter.com/8YqARiZdD1
— 紅闘志也/Toshiya Kurenai/ကူရီနိင်း တိုရှီယာ (@kurenaitoshiya1) July 5, 2025
It would be a miscarriage of justice if we at Sherdog did not put up footage from the first official robot-on-robot fight run by an organization of note. Kunlun Fight ran a tournament “Humanoid Robot Standing Fighting Golden Belt” where kickboxing robots—how about the name Kickbots?—with Google translated names read Lei Jianlonglong, Kangaroo Dada, Tekken Tang Tang and Kunlun Shining. They won’t be getting Fight Finder profiles, but we are watching out, as Kunlun Shining won the tournament and we’re a bit suspicious the automaton named after the organization earned the title. Seriously, it got a title and a chance to speak on the microphone.
