Here’s one that is making the rounds of the internet right now: A small guy and a tall guy are having an argument (no idea what it’s about). Things seem to heat up and then the small guy sucker punches the tall one with a left hook. The tall guy crashes to the floor unconscious.
Here’s what happened.
There are a couple lessons here:
- Anybody can get knocked out. Just because you’re taller than your opponent, doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable.
- Smaller fighters often know better than to fight “fair.” Size matters, sure. But don’t underestimate smaller opponents. If they have only a little bit of experience, they know full well they need to be sneakier and nastier than you to compensate for their size disadvantage.
- Use your advantage. The tall guy should never have let the smaller one get so close. He has the reach advantage so why on earth does he stand inside his smaller opponent’s range?
- Striking first often works real well. Preemptive striking works real well, providing you do it correctly. In this instance, it wasn’t perfect but it sure got the job done.
Perhaps the most important lessons is this:
Don’t get into stupid fights.
This kind of knock out, where you are out before you hit the ground, is what often causes brain damage and death. Look at the tall guy going limp and falling face first to the ground: there’s nothing slowing down his fall. He goes full “Ker-splat!’
I don’t know how it ended here but falling like that is a great way to crack your skull. It’s particularly nasty when you hit the back of your head and can result in some pretty nasty consequences. Just recently we had a case here where a guy threw one punch and killed somebody. Isn’t the first time this happened either; it’s not just something that you only see in the movies.
The same ‘don’t get into stupid fights” goes for the small guy. I don’t know the context of this fight so he might be legally justified in striking first. But even if he is, an overzealous prosecutor or a civil lawsuit might make him wish he had just run away. Which from the looks of it was entirely possible by the way…
As things are now, without any witnesses or audio for these images to support self-defense, things look bad for him. All the images show is:
- He gets in an argument with somebody.
- He punches first and knocks the guy out.
- He casually walks away.
This is in stark contrast with a self-defense claim along the lines of “I was afraid, I couldn’t run away, he attacked me, I defended myself and then I ran for my life…”
So again, don’t get into stupid fights. It’s not worth it.
Me says
I have a question that would probably be best fit for someone that is a medic and is responsible of giving first aid to fighters in a ring.
Is the way the guy fell normal? I thought at first that the video was a fake because he stumbled around in this way before falling…shouldn’t his feet give way and let him fall like a sack of potatoes instead of doing that weird dizzy step?
Wim says
It happens. Look up some KO compilations on Youtube. You’ll see it there too.
Wallace says
If you notice, his left kneebuckles and hits the ground pretty solidly…that’s gonna hurt in winter…
Iain says
Nice blog Wim. Thanks.
The guy in the white circiling round the back is holding something like a round 2Kg dumbell weight prior to the KO which looks like it was thrown near the same time as the punch and has disappeared from his hand after the KO.
Looks like the KO’d guy was attacked from front and back at the same time.
Ouch! A good example of predators at work… But, as you say a stupid situation to get into.
Wim says
It looks like that Iain, but if you watch the individual frames of this animated gif, that’s not what happened. The guy in white is still holding the object but because of his hand position and the low resolution of the images, you can’t see it anymore.
Josh says
I must dispute the attack from the front and behind comment as its just bizarre looking. What I mean is particularly the guy in white with the “weight disc”. You see him circling with the disc in hand and then as soon as the punch is thrown you see the weight coming towards the camera but if you watch the movements of the guy in white and his right arm, his right arm never moves in a way as if he threw the disc so either something screwy happened with some editing in favor of the small guy getting a one punch k.o. or the video is just some really poor quality but anyway i just don’t know about the authenticity of this video.