Something I've noticed is, once a fight's been stopped due to a sudden knock-out, how often the fighter who's been "knocked out" and is lying bowl-legged and dizzy-eyed flat on his back, still keeps fighting ... throwing punches and wrestling ... not his opponent, but the guy who happens to be kneeling over him: the referee.
It's like even though the fallen fighter's brain's taken a time-out (and doesn't realize the fight's over), whether from reflex, instinct, or maybe something else, his body keeps on battling whoever's closest ... even if that happens to be the guy who's in there solely to protect him from absorbing unnecessary punishment.
One other thing I've noticed in UFC cage fighting is how often a fighter who seems literally out on his feet will somehow step forward, instead of falling down, lock eyes on his wildly-swinging opponent ... and throw a perfectly timed haymaker that suddenly KOs his adversary and wins the fight.
Those amazing last second come-from-behind punches appear from nowhere and happen so fast, seems like it takes two or three slow-motion replays before the ringside cameras can catch up.
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Bill Jordan was a US Border Patrol Agent who experienced and survived scores, or maybe hundreds, of shoot-outs with smugglers and assorted villains and desperados during his decades-long career as a law enforcement officer on the US-Mexico border.
In his book No Second Place Winner, Jordan describes something peculiar about the behavior of scared-to-death, rookie officers as they confronted fear and terror during their first life-threatening gun fights with bad guys.
Even when pinned down under hostile fire, in literal fear for their lives, the rookie agents picked up and pocketed the spent brass cases from their revolvers as they reloaded. And afterwards, given the adrenaline-charged moment, never remembered retrieving their empty cases.
The agents had picked up their empties because that's how they'd been trained to perform during hundreds and hundreds of hours of instruction, practice and repetition at the shooting range: being budget conscious, the Border Patrol insisted upon reloading their own ammo; hence the requirement for officers to Pick Up and Save Those Empties!
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Why bother mentioning any of those things? Because training takes over when reflex and instinct fall short.
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Praise be to the LORD my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
- Psalm 144:1
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Have nothing to do with Godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be Godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
- 1 Timothy 4:7-8
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
- Hebrews 5:13-14
A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.
- Luke 6:40
Footnote: while writing this, in the background, Georges St-Pierre, Keith Jardine and Chuck Lidell got knocked out. Wow.
No moment's more amazing, or holds more opportunity ... than the present.
