It’s happened more times than you think. Fighters have been knocking themselves out since the dawning of combat sports.
A couple of months ago an amateur kickboxer put all other self-knockouts to shame. While attempting a scissor-kick, this poor guy knocked himself out cold:
This is why you have a few amateur fights before you go pro. You might find that you’re the kind of fighter who can knock himself out, in which case you should probably find another line of work to go into.
Not just amateurs can pull this off however, plenty of pro-fighters have done the same. In fact, some of the fighters listed in this article are (or were, at least) championship-level mixed martial artists.
Here are five fighters who managed to KO themselves in a fight:
5. Gray Maynard – TUF 5 Finale
Gray Maynard came so close to winning the UFC lightweight championship. A controversial draw against then-champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 125 was all that kept Maynard from wearing gold in the UFC.
Maynard was still undefeated come UFC 125, the only blemish on his record was another draw, this one from his 2007 UFC debut against Rob Emerson.
He had appeared to win his UFC debut at the TUF5 finale, as Emerson tapped out after sustaining an injury during a takedown. Upon closer examination however, Maynard appeared to have knocked himself out during the takedown as well.
The referee’s decision of a no-contest was controversial, as the ref was only looking at Emerson when he waved off the fight. The decision that Maynard had been knocked out at the end of the bout appears to have been made after-the-fact.
Maynard was not happy with the decision, but it didn’t impact his career any. He went on an 8-fight winning streak after this, including beating Frankie Edgar. His 2nd bout with Edgar was for the title at UFC 125. Edgar finally knocked him out at UFC 136, ending the rivalry between the two.
