A double knockout is a very rare occurrence in the sport of mixed martial arts, especially when it happens without either man having thrown a strike!

This freak phenomenon happened in the co-main event of a ‘Night Of Champions’ event in Paczkow, Poland back in 2012, where Mateusz Zawadzki vs marcin was set to take on Marcin Mencel in a welterweight bout.

Zawadski, in the red and gray trunks, had a 7-1 record at the time and was the favorite to win, so it was no surprise that he got the better of the early striking action in the opening round against Mencel, who was 5-3 in his pro-career back then.

So, nothing unusual to report at this stage, but approaching the two-minute mark something bizarre happened, with both men deciding to go for a takedown at exactly the same time.

The two men seemed to mirror each other’s movements perfectly as they ducked in, which resulted in a completely unintentional, but particularly devastating double headbutt that dropped both men flat on their backs.

Mencel clutched his head in obvious distress, then rolled flat onto his stomach and lay motionless, clearly in no state to continue the fight.

Meanwhile, Zawadski showed tremendous heart as he tried to get back upright, but it quickly became apparent that he was badly rocked, as he keeled over at the first attempt, and was very unsteady on his legs when he did finally works his way back to his feet.

The referee had already decided the fight was over by then and so he gently took Zawadski back down to the mat, where he just lay in a daze as cornermen rushed in to attend to both him and his opponent.

In the end the fight was declared a technical draw due to a double knockout, while both men were stretchered out of the ring wearing neck braces.

Clearly both men suffered a nasty concussion here, so it’s somewhat alarming to note that Zawadski actually fought again less than a month later, though he did win on that occasion, and overall he’s posted a 5-2-1 record since the headbutt incident.

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Mencel didn’t fair so well though, taking over a year out after the fight, then suffering two further first round losses that led to him hanging up his gloves.