One of the most promising young heavyweights in mixed martial arts suffered one of the most shocking losses in MMA history on Saturday night, as Mike Russow shocked Todd Duffee with a third-round knockout punch at UFC 114.Russow, who spends part of his time as a Chicago police officer and part of his time as a mixed martial artist, was getting completely outclassed by Duffee for the first two and a half rounds of the fight. But at the midway point of Round 3, Russow landed a punch out of nowhere that knocked Duffee cold and ended the fight.
"This was an awful fight," Russow conceded afterward, acknowledging that Duffee had been dominating him until he landed a right hook to Duffee's ear that changed everything.
Duffee had been dominating throughout until that one punch landed: Duffee tagged Russow with a powerful uppercut in the first minute of the fight and had Russow in trouble early, and was throwing his trademark fast, powerful punches. Russow couldn't do much of anything about it -- other than take the punches, showing off an impressive chin if nothing else.
In the second round both fighters slowed down, as Duffee continued to throw a lot of punches but didn't have as much power on them, and Russow could hardly do anything other than stand there and take it. The fans started to boo because they wanted to see a knockout and instead they were getting a couple of heavyweights gasping for air.
And then the unthinkable happened in the third, as Russow connected that right hook to Duffee's ear and won in absolutely amazing fashion. The 24-year-old Duffee entered the fight with a 6-0 record and is the owner of the fastest knockout in UFC history, but Russow exposed him on Saturday night as a prospect who still has a lot of work to do. Russow was the first to admit that he didn't look good in this fight, but he didn't need to look good. He just needed to land one perfect punch, and that's what he did.
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