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Bloody and Beaten: Devastating Knockout Ends the Night in Dramatic Fashion

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We’ve got ourselves a candidate for knockout of the year in combat sports thanks to Geoff Neal at UFC 228 Saturday night.

Neal, facing Frank Camacho in the preliminary bouts before the main card, delivered a kick to the face that was so brutal that those of squeamish temperament are advised to look away.

Camacho went down like he’d been shot after eating Neal’s foot with extra mustard.

This was a textbook case of teeing up an opponent and using his natural motion against him and deserves a deeper dive.

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Watch the way Neal pawed at Camacho with his lead hand before the kick, because it’s the key to how this entire knockout was made possible.

When a fighter is coming at you with jabs and hooks, the natural motion is to roll away from them, softening the blow if they land while also getting the head behind the guard for a one-two punch that might be coming with the other hand. In boxing, this works to stop one-punch knockouts almost every time.

But in MMA, where the angle of a roundhouse kick naturally gets behind an arm that is up to protect against a punch, it’s like hitting a batting practice fastball with a baseball bat as the head moves directly into the trajectory of the sweet spot of the oncoming foot.

That’s how Camacho’s night ended.

Is this the KO of the Year in UFC?

The 28-year-old Neal may not have been the main event, but he competes in the UFC’s welterweight division.

And it just so happens that the big attraction at UFC 228 was a welterweight fight, as Tyron Woodley beat Darren Till via submission in the second-round.

The main event had its share of action as well.

Woodley might want to bone up on his defense against pawing jabs and hooks as his championship reign goes on.

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Neal, meanwhile, is on a roll.

He’s won four straight fights, and his ability to win not only with strikes (six of his 10 wins are by knockout through kicks or punches) but with submissions as well shows a versatility in the sport that will serve him well as he tries to leverage his newfound fame into bigger things on the UFC scene.

The future of the UFC welterweight division looks jam-packed with great fights. But for now, we’ve got that replay of the leading candidate for knockout of the year.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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