We are the official records keepers for mixed martial arts, and helped pioneer the sport in our region. But we never, ever saw a KO quite like this one.

“This looks like WWE to me,” said Bas Rutten. “I’m not saying it is, but check this out.”

Virginia welterweight Chris Henderson remains undefeated after this one. His first fight was a first round submission. Second fight was won via knee KO. And the third fight? Well, it was another knee KO, and in the first round … in under a minute. All three fights were under the Virginia Cagefighting banner, this latest at VCFC Danville Destruction.

The KO happened as opponent Chris Gardner posted a hand on the hip, in order to create distance and the prevent a knee. That technique however has to be used sparingly.

Henderson transitioned to what is traditionally known in Thai Boxing as Hak Kor Aiyara – Break the Elephant’s Neck. More commonly called a Plumm or Double Head Tie, once secured, a knee can be driven into the ribs, solar plexus, stomach, thighs, or … the head.

And then Garden executes an unconscious pirouette.

When Bas said it looked like WWE, he meant that literally. And it does, literally, look like a choreographed WWE exhibition move. However, this was in reality as real as it gets.

A ‘Fix’ is when one fighter throws a fight, but the other doesn’t know it. A ‘Work’ is when both fighters know the outcome of the contest. And a ‘Shoot’ is a real fight. This wasn’t a Fix or a Work, this was a shoot.

We wanted to clarify that Rutten was not suggesting anything fake was going on. This was a simply a case of truth being just as strange as fiction.