A brutal knockout occurred in the recent Fairtex event. Manolis Kallistis delivered a brutal rolling thunder kick that knocked his opponent out cold.
Thailand-based muay thai promotion Fairtex recently held one of their major events in Bangkok. In one of the cards, they featured Manolis Kallistis going against Juan Gonzales in a muay thai match.
The battle was pretty shocking. The pair spent their first round checking for momentums while punching and kicking a few times. None of them had done any meaningful damage to each other. However, in the last seconds of the first round, Kallistis pulled an awesome move.
Manolis Kallistis delivered a rolling thunder kick. He spinned in the air and the heel of his right leg connected right on Gonzales’ jaw. This move usually has a pretty long build up. But, Kallistis did it pretty quickly. Gonzales seemingly did not expect this move as he wasn’t reacting at all.
The impact completely knocked Gonzales out. He fell on the canvas fully unconscious. The ref quickly waved his hands, marking the end of the match.
The clip of the knockout was uploaded on social media and went viral. Several combat sports fans jumped into the comment section expressing how impressed they are with that beautiful kick.
“Oh my goodness! Wow!” One fan said. While another added, “insane”. Another fan talked about their experience with that kick and explained how useful it is in muay thai match, “my first karate teacher used to KO people with this all the time, and it worked cause you can’t strike on the ground etc”
Manolis Kalistis is a professional muay thai athlete and has quite the experience on the field. Back in 2016, he faced Japanese kickboxing star Tenshin Nasukawa in a kickboxing match. They were able to stand until the horn rang and Nasukawa was announced as the winner via unanimous decision.