"The Brazilian fighters started off relatively lightly, circling each other for the first minute of Saturday night's bout. Belfort briefly took Silva down, but the UFC middleweight champion bounced right back up. Suddenly, Silva threw a left front kick to the jaw that knocked Belfort to the mat, and then threw a couple of punches that seemed almost unnecessary to end the match against the dazed fighter.
Knockouts happen because the brain isn't completely glued to the skull; it has room for movement. A kick or punch to the jaw can displace it, said Dr. Osric King, sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, and Medical Advisor for the New York State Athletic Commission.
For the most part, the brain is secured by blood vessels and nerves that are integrated between the skull and different layers of tissue, he said. When the jaw is kicked with enough force, the brain and nerves reach a critical point where they can't sustain consciousness. As the blood vessels get stretched out, they're not able to sustain the continued blood supply the brain may need, and the person may black out immediately.
After a single knockout involving loss of consciousness, there needs to be a healing process of at least about 60 to 90 days before coming back to fighting, King said. In boxing, a technical knockout usually requires 45 days off. If a fighter goes back in too quickly, he'll be more susceptible to getting knocked out even more easily, he said."
Spotted at CNN.
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