# The Glass Jaw



## jezr74 (Mar 15, 2013)

I was watching Ridiculousness last night and they had Dana White as a guest, so the clips were fight orientated and a number of UFC knockouts were shown.

I noticed when watching, and have thought this before. That nearly all of the knock-outs I've watched, UFC or other, are hits to the jaw. 

What is it about the jaw that can send a person to the ground so quickly?


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## jks9199 (Mar 15, 2013)

See HERE


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## Dirty Dog (Mar 15, 2013)

There are two basic ways to knock someone out in a fight (ignoring the possibility of Jedi mind control, for the moment...).

A strike to the side of the jaw causes the head to whip violently side to side. This also causes the brain to bounce around inside the skull. The brain is (for good reason) a loose fit inside the skull. During the initial impact, the head moves one way, causing the brain to compress against the skull at the point of impact, which injures the brain and increases the gap between the brain and the skull on the opposite side. The head and brain then both rebound, causing the brain to slam into the skull on the opposite side. This is called a coup-contrecoup injury. When we CT people, the contrecoup (rebound or second impact) is generally worse.

View attachment $coup injury.gif

A straight in strike to the front of the jaw (what boxers call "the button") uses the other basic mechanism. Feel along your jaw to the corner. Directly behind the corner of the jaw are a number of delicate structures, including the carotid arteries and a large bundle of nerves. A strike to the point pushes the jaw backwards and will even partially dislocate the temporomandibular joint. This causes the bone at the corner of the jaw to strike that nerve cluster (which can be phenomenally painful) and physically compress the carotids, disrupting the flow of blood to the brain. And... you're out.

There are other mechanisms, but these are the two simplest and most common.


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## jezr74 (Mar 15, 2013)

jks9199 said:


> See HERE




Nice vid, http://www.break.com/index/anatomy-of-a-one-punch-knockout-299369/


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