A fighter learned a valuable lesson last night (Fri., Dec. 8, 2023) at ONE Fight Night 17 from inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, when he was knocked out cold after taunting his opponent.
The incident occurred during a main card matchup between welterweights Dmitry Menshikov and Mouhcine Chafi. It wasn’t the biggest fight on the card, but certainly a matchup of strikers that had all the ingredients of a highlight-reel finish. Luckily for fight fans, that’s exactly what happened when they were least expecting it.
The action was pretty back-and-forth for the opening minutes of the first round, but Chafi eventually left his guard open and paid the ultimate price. Chafi tracked down Menshikov into the corner and threw his hands up in effort to taunt. That’s when Menshikov launched a vicious combination that connected perfectly and sent Chafi crashing to the canvas. he was out for the count.
Check out the stoppage in the above video player and an alternate angle below:
Nasty KO from Dmitry Menshikov on Mouhcine Chafi.
Can’t drop those hands. Fuck around and find out
US$50k bonus for Menshikov#ONEFightNight17 pic.twitter.com/v74MHiUg7B
— Nicolas Atkin (@nicatkinONE) December 9, 2023
We’ve seen some pretty gnarly knockouts in combat sports this year, but this one provided the biggest lesson all. When fists and kicks are flying you need to protect yourself at all times, especially when a killer like Menshikov is standing across the ring.