VIDEO | Sumo bout produces thunderous, walk-off knockout

Generally speaking, knockouts are a pretty uncommon sight in the sport of sumo. When two massive men collide at full speed, however, things tend to happen.

Case in point: the match shown in the video above, which pits the 319-pound Musashikuni Mamu against the 242-pound Tomisakae Ryutaro.

In this contest, Musashikuni quickly sends his smaller foe careening to the ground with a forearm to the face. Though it may come as a surprise, this strike is actually allowed by the sumo ruleset. As sumoforum.net explains, the technique, which is called a kachiage, allows a sumoist to unsettle their aite‘s (opponent’s) stance by “landing powerful thrusts with bent arms onto his chin and upper torso.” In this case, Musashikuni’s kachiage turned his foe’s lights out.

After being sent to the ground by this strike, Tomisakae attempts to regain his footing, but is unable to do so, as he is still rattled from Musashikuni’s kachiage. Needless to say, sumo can be an extremely brutal combat sport, though it is not often credited as such.

Given the inherently brutal nature of sumo, you might be wondering why we don’t see more sumoists make the jump to mixed martial arts. Well, while this a relatively rare occurrence, it has happened before.

The most recent, and arguably most high profile instance of sumo practitioner making the jump to mixed martial arts has occurred under the Rizin Fighting Federation banner, where Estonian sumo star Kaido Hoovelson – better known by the nickname “Baruto” – has gone 3-1 as a pro mixed martial artist.

In his first MMA bout, Baruto defeated kickboxing legend Peter Aerts by unanimous decision. In his next two fights, he captured decision wins over Japanese veterans Kazuyuki Fujita and Tsuyoshi “TK” Kosaka. In his most recent bout, however, he was crumpled by a knee to the body dealt by retired MMA legend Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic.

What do you think of this walk-off KO in the sumo dohyō? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/8/2017.