'You feel like a god' - the anatomy of a knockout

But location are immoderate knockouts that cannot beryllium resisted and nan aftermath tin beryllium horrific.

The strains of a rendition of Rule Britannia from his travelling service of fans had conscionable died distant erstwhile a crunching near manus from Pacquiao floored Hatton.

It took him a bully mates of minutes to get backmost to his feet. The after-effects lasted a batch longer. Hatton suffered terribly pinch slump successful nan aftermath of his knockout - he was suicidal and attempted to termination himself 'several times'.

"People would say: 'What's he sewage to beryllium depressed about? Yeah he sewage hit by Pacquiao, but, look, he's sewage a bully house, he's sewage a bully car, he's sewage this, he's sewage that, what does he request to beryllium worried about?' But they don't realise nan authorities it leaves you in," says Hatton.

"When you're a combatant and a winner, you person to person that belief successful yourself and that cognition that no-one tin hit you, that you're nan best.

"If you're a proud, proud man, a proud boxing champion, you know, it doesn't matter what you put successful nan slope and really large your location is, it messes you up a bit."

The emphatic mode of nan Pacquiao nonaccomplishment trim deep. It was crippling. That is what nan knockout tin do, nan effect it tin have. It tin bargain a captious portion of nan defeated fighter.

Physiologically what is happening successful that infinitesimal is easier to explain.

"It varies from personification to person. But fundamentally an effect causes a displacement aliases activity of nan encephalon wrong nan skull," says Scott.

"The jolting unit wholly disrupts nan nervus signals wrong nan head, and nan consequence is that nan strategy momentarily almost shuts down.

"It's for illustration a protective benignant of mechanism, resulting successful a impermanent nonaccomplishment of consciousness.

"Anyone tin beryllium knocked out, it conscionable depends connected really difficult that process is going to be."

There are plentifulness of professionals who've ne'er been knocked out. American fable Marvin Hagler survived immoderate vicious bouts, notably his 1985 warfare pinch Thomas Hearns, earlier retiring without a losing KO connected his record.

But successful Scott's estimation, specified a grounds is, astatine slightest partly, down to luck.

"They haven't been exposed to nan level of unit aliases that nonstop 'everything lining up' infinitesimal - nan 'Swiss food effect', external wherever each nan factors travel together - that would lead to that knockout for them," he says.

A knockout will astir often hap done "getting caught pinch a changeable that you aren't afloat prepared for" and because you're not prepared for it "you haven't sewage that brace strategy group up".

When a punch lands connected an unprepared opponent, nan unit transmits done nan skull of a combatant much effectively, causing moreover greater activity of nan encephalon and a correspondingly slimmer chance nan recipient has of staying conscious.

In boxing we often mention to a fighter's 'chin', referencing their expertise to return a punch and not get knocked out.

It is an expertise that is difficult to define.

"We tin picture fighters arsenic having a beardown chin but they person a batch of different factors counting for them," says Scott.

"Maybe person peculiarly beardown cervix muscles aliases they whitethorn conscionable not beryllium arsenic prone physiologically to a concussion.

"If you get a patient deed connected nan chin, nan quality of nan bottommost jaw, nan mandible, is that it's a U-shaped bony essentially. The unit will beryllium transmitted consecutive astir it, up to your jaw associated and consecutive to nan guidelines of your skull. And nan unit past dissipates.

"If that happens to you aliases me, there's a precocious chance we would break our jaw joints astatine nan constituent of impact.

"However, successful an elite jock who has strengthened their cervix and backmost and their precocious torso, nan consequence is different. The unit is amended dissipated, because of nan reinforcement astir nan skull."

A knockout punch reverberates acold beyond nan ringing though.