The Art of the One Punch Knockout

What a difference a second and an inch make in MMA huh?

As Chuck Liddell brought his right hand from his waist and was looking at throwing a fight ending uppercut to Rashad Evans, Evans had his own plans with his right hand.  As Chuck hit first, missing his target and catching Evans in the shoulder, Evans did not, catching his opponent with a huge over hand right that I swear was coming out of the crowd.  In that split second and that missed inch, Chuck was out cold and Rashad was the creator of the most violent one punch KO I have ever seen.

With mma, you never no when the event or fight you are watching is going to end.  In football, you know each team will play four quarters, in baseball, nine innings and hockey....... well hockey is in its own league.  MMA, seconds and inches can mean the difference in winning and losing, and losing brutally.  The evolution of these high caliber fighters has made it where even the guy known for his wrestling (Evans) has dynamite in his hands if he catches you on the button.  That's the excitement off mixed martial arts.

As I sat with my friends watching Chuck go down like his title hopes, I was in disbelief.  Not that he lost, Evans was not the huge underdog the fans or the lines had made him out to be, but by the fashion he lost and the irony.  Here's Liddell, a fighter that has KO'd the who's who of mixed martial arts, and he is on the wrong end of one, if not the most, brutal KO of MMA history.  The same irony of Cro-Cop, known world wide for his devastating head kick KO's, getting one himself by Gabriel Gonzaga.  Just magnify it by a hundred.

My first reaction after seeing this? I was nervous for Chuck.  It's not normal for a person to go down like that and stay down.  Now matter how many times I watch mma fights, there's always that first second where I think, "this isn't normal, he might be seriously hurt."  The shock of the arena and the events that unfolded seconds before, created an atmosphere that I can honestly say I have not felt in watching any mma event. 

Seconds. Inches.  It's all the world to Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans this Sunday afternoon.  Chuck has to be wondering how many seconds he has left in his Hall of Fame UFC career.  Evans knows that he is inches away from becoming champion if he defeats Forrest Griffin down the road.

Two fighters, two punches, one result.  You do the math.