Ludwig Elated That UFC Acknowledges Fastest KO Record

Duane Ludwig now owns a much-coveted UFC record. | Photo: Dave Mandel

The Nevada State Athletic Commission recorded the finish for the UFC Fight Night 3 bout at 11 seconds. Pretty much everyone else could agree the fight was over sooner, but the NSAC’s time has long been accepted as official. For that reason, Ludwig’s lightning-quick knockout has been kept out of the record books.

On Dec. 24, though, UFC President Dana White announced on Twitter that Ludwig’s KO was the fastest in UFC history. White then followed up with a video blog that showed footage to prove it.

“It was very cool,” Ludwig told the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “Definitely a little bit unexpected. It’s been about five years. It’s definitely cool to have it credited to me finally.”

Of course, at this point the NSAC is not going to change its record books. Ludwig prefers the UFC’s version of history anyway.

“That’s more than enough because Dana White and the UFC and the fans, they’re all my brothers and my family,” he said. “That means more to me than a government employee in a suit. I’m definitely happy with the UFC stepping in and Dana White being a man of his word.”

On his video blog, White timed Ludwig’s KO of Goulet, Todd Duffee’s KO of Tim Hague, and Chan Sung Jung’s recent KO of Mark Hominick. Officially, the Duffee and Jung finishes came at seven seconds. White timed Duffee’s at 7.56 seconds and Jung’s at 6.26 seconds. Ludwig believes he beat Goulet in four seconds, but the UFC president called it 6.06 seconds, which still edged Jung if you agree with the UFC’s own timekeeping.

“It separates me from everybody past, present and possibly future on the planet Earth,” Ludwig said. “It’s definitely cool to stand out from every other human being. It’s definitely cool to be known for that because that’s some ninja stuff there. Also, the way that it went down, the technical precision, the setup and stepping off to the side -- it wasn’t just like I closed my eyes and got a lucky punch. There was some thought process into that.”

And then years to get the UFC to recognize him for it. Jung blitzing Hominick so quickly in December helped bring the issue back up, but Jung nearly claimed the record himself, which raises the question: Can the record be broken?

“I’m sure there’s definitely things that can happen, but it looks like in history, it hasn’t happened yet,” Ludwig said. “If it does, then that’s cool. But for right now, I’d like to just enjoy this a little bit.”

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 51:55).