In what sport can you get a knock-out knee to the face while wrestling on the ground?

Mixed Martial Arts is that sport.

Many of you have heard of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) with its “Octagon”, but until recently it had never been south of San Francisco. That is until it came for the first time to the San Mateo County fairgrounds on October 6.

Undefeated was hosted by Cage Combat, and consisted of nine bouts. These bouts were fought between two opponents in an octagonal ring with 6 foot high mesh walls. The bouts were further divided into three rounds of five minutes. The bout could be won in three ways; a knock-out, submission, and a decision by the judges. From what this reporter could see is that the only rules were no biting, scratching, or shots to the groin.

The first round in any bout usually started off the same.

Once the referee started the match the two fighters high-fived each other, and then proceeded to look for an opportunity to strike. When one of the fighters scored a hit he would immediately tackle the other fighter and put him in a submission hold. The fighters would squirm around on the ground, and if one of them was put in a bad position, like an arm bar, the ref would end the match.

If this did not succeed the fighters became very tired and the match would go the whole 15 minutes, with the judges making a decision.

This gave the whole tournament a very fast pace, with about six of the nine matches ending in less than three minutes.

The fights were usually quite vicious. Knees to the chest and head were very common. In fact one of the knees possibly gave the tournament its only knock-out, in which Robert Stack ferociously hit his opponent in the temple while on the ground.

While the fighting appeared quite brutal it didn’t seem to be too damaging, only twice was any sort of medical assistance required in the ring once for a possible dislocated shoulder/broken arm and for the knockout.

While the audience was at first attentive to every movement the fighters made, as the title fights came around the audience lost interest very quickly. Both of the title fights went to the 15 minute mark, and the night ended rather anti-climactically with the audience glad to be out of the makeshift arena, and into the night air with dreams of going home, and beating up something.