What you may have missed from last night
The utterly amazing thing about mixed martial arts is what a stunning variety of beautiful violence it produces. Every week, it seems, we witness something we haven’t quite seen before. Every so often, a truly remarkable moment comes along, without precedent, such as Yair Rodriguez’ literal last-second up-elbow KO of the Korean Zombie, or, for that matter, the Korean Zombie’s still-unmatched twister submission of Leonard Garcia.
Raymond Daniels has a history of such moments. Bringing an unusual skillset with him from his point-fighting karate background, he loves to err on the side of the spectacular. It got him far in kickboxing, though not to the very height of the mountain. With Bellator, Daniels has opted to bring his brand of spin into the cage, to the result seen above. This might be his most spectacular knockout ever, even including his two-touch spinning back kick KO at Glory 16.
We are privileged to live in such a time of exquisite violence. There isn’t even a name for what Daniels did as far as I know, spinning twice, faking the kick, and landing a picture-perfect punch on poor Wilkes Barros’ chin. The sound his fist made when it connected was unreal. Like the Suleov stretch (which we witnessed twice in one night in 2018) or the Mighty Whiz-bar (should have gone with Mousetrap dude) Daniels could name this technique after himself if he wanted to. He earned that right.