Five years ago today, Luke Rockhold picked up a win that changed the trajectory of his entire career.

Rockhold already had experienced plenty of success. He was Strikeforce’s final middleweight champion before that promotion merged with the UFC in 2013, and he had a nine-fight winning streak by the time he made his UFC debut in May 2013.

In that first UFC fight, he was knocked out by a spinning heel kick from Vitor Belfort in Brazil. It was not the start he was looking for.

Seven months later, though, on Jan. 15, 2014, he put himself on a path that led to the UFC’s middleweight title. In the UFC Fight Night 35 main event, Rockhold shut down Costas Philippou midway through the first round with a brutal kick to the body.

The fight headlined the card at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga., north of Atlanta.

That victory got Rockhold back on track and gave him his first UFC win. He picked up a $50,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus for it, as well.

After that, he rattled off three more stoppages, all by submission, of Tim Boetsch, Michael Bisping and former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. The Bisping and Machida wins gave him $50,000 bonuses, as well.

In late 2015, at UFC 194, Rockhold challenged Chris Weidman for the middleweight title and picked up another bonus – “Fight of the Night” – and the belt with a fourth-round TKO.

Rockhold lost the title in his first defense in a rematch with Bisping and fought just one time each in 2016, 2017 and this past year. But his road to UFC gold started five years ago today with a bonus-winning TKO.

Check out the slow-motion highlights from Rockhold’s win over Philippou in the video above, and don’t miss our fight-night photo gallery below.