We still like skull-smacking knockouts, right?
It’s an honest question: Do MMA fans continue to enjoy the sight of someone getting kicked in the face and falling lifeless to the ground?
I only ask because a world record for the fastest knockout in MMA may have been set Saturday, and the crowd reacted as though it had watched someone's parents win a three-legged race.
The spectacular knockout was very real and occurred at WCMMA 14, according to Zane Simon of Bloody Elbow. While it can hardly be called a “fight,” a brief transaction of skin and bone occurred between fighters Sam Heron and Mike Garret.
Facing off in a matchup that can be described as “Mini Gronk vs. Bad Weasley,” Garret and Heron didn’t appear to be a good matchup from the beginning. Garret, the smaller version of Rob Gronkowski, came out and immediately ended the match with a rear leg head kick.
The crowd members weren’t ready. They barely had time to find their seats before Mini Gronk banished punk-rock Ron Weasley to the land of unconsciousness.
Nonetheless, no one in the audience appeared to care when WCMMA promoter Dave O’Donnell explained to them that they had probably witnessed an MMA world record.
“You have witnessed, people,” O’Donnell said, “one of the things I’ve never seen. One second! C’mon!”
O’Donnell tried, but apparently, the WCMMA crowd isn’t used to world record-threatening performances. Simon writes that the fight’s time stamp has yet to be confirmed.
As always the idea of an official time keeper stopping the clock becomes a bit hazy in these situations. UCMMA has helpfully provided their own, embedded time clock to make their claim, but it looked like it might have taken the ref another second to actually wave [the fight] off.
While nothing is official yet, this very well could prove to be the fastest. Two seconds is the current standing record for fastest knockout in MMA history, according to Doug Sibor of Complex Sports.
Either way, Garret appears to have a future in MMA—or at least a job lined up kicking down doors. That man can boot.
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