This Insane Flying Knee KO From UFC Fight Night 82 Is Downright Nasty

Anything can happen in a fight. Anything. UFC fans have seen Anderson Silva come back to submit Chael Sonnen after five rounds of dominance, and we’ve seen knockouts in the opening seconds of bouts. In the fight game, even if you’re Diego Rivas, getting dominated and picked apart by Noad Lahat for the first five minutes, there’s always a chance. That’s what makes MMA such an intriguing sport, and that’s why Diego Rivas’ comeback flying knee KO at UFC Fight Night 82 is so damn impressive.

After clearly losing the first round 10-8, Rivas opened the second round with a nuclear missile launch program in his legs. At some point he understood that he wasn’t going to make it out of this fight without a drastic measure, so he agreed upon the possibility of mutually assured destruction and picked up the red phone, dialed in the launch numbers, and turned that key. The detonation on Lahat’s skull kept him down for multiple minutes, unconscious, and with EMTs tending to him.

Twitter reacted as expected:

https://twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/696141802898763777

https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/696141790362132480

https://twitter.com/MikeStraka/status/696142331809001473

https://twitter.com/BrianStann/status/696142134110367746

It’s never easy to see a fighter go down like that. It was a perfectly-placed knee that sounded like it was cracking open a melon. Hopefully Lahat makes a full recovery.