Less than 72 hours into 2018 and we've already seen the best knockout of the year. Hands down. Lights, quite literally, out. Is that premature? Probably. Will it make us seem like idiots as early as next week? Almost certainly. But look upon this tapestry of pain and try to tell us otherwise.

https://twitter.com/streetfitebanch/status/948474528937709568

https://twitter.com/Jolassanda/status/948467943997886464

The man in the red you see opening up a can of Bruce Lee on his opponent is Satoshi “Tiger” Date, a Japanese flyweight who on Saturday night pulled off this insane "Rolling Thunder" KO at an MMA event in Ganryujima. Ranked #193 in his weight class in Japan and boasting a career record of 6-9-7, Date isn't exactly what you'd call a powerhouse or even a contender, but the combination of acrobatics, arrogance, and ferocity required to execute a move like this in a competitive bout has helped Date achieve something even more elusive: Internet stardom.

We have a long year of brawling, both sanctioned and otherwise, ahead of us, of course, but for now let's call a spade a spade. This is the knockout of the year, and not McGregor, Lomachenko, Joshua, Holm, or some drunk idiot at a Steelers game can say anything about it…yet anyway.

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