There's never a good way to be kicked in the face. Whichever way you look at it, being hit with the blunt force of another person's foot squarely on the bridge of your nose isn't going to be appearing in what many people would consider a great day. Especially if that kick is executed to perfection and sends you hurtling through time and space.
Now, normally here at GAMINGbible, we wouldn't cover people being kicked in the face, it's just not our remit. But a recent UFC Fight Island 5 bout between Joaquin Buckley and Impa Kasanganay was no normal match. The aforementioned perfectly executed kick by Buckley ended the fight instantly in the second round, as he performed a spinning heel kick while Kasanganay was holding his other foot. And, as you might have guessed from the title of this article, that's a Tekken move, right there. Check it out below.
The move in question is almost a frame by frame reconstruction of Tekken characters Lee's Mist Trap move. As Kotaku points out, this is actually a Taekwondo move but us all being nerds here, recognise it from the popular fighting game, and it's kinda awesome to see it performed so deftly in real life.
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Pulling off the move in a game is an extremely difficult maneuver, and leaves the performer open to a potentially brutal counter-attack from the ground. This is something that Buckley didn't have to worry about since the kick left Kasanganay seeing stars. Many are calling it the knockout of the year and you can see why - it was impressive as hell.
The once-in-a-career move is likely to gain Buckley some notoriety in and out of the ring, so here's hoping he leans into a more extravagant moveset in the future. Ideally he'd take Tekken as a basis for some of the showstoppers. You bet your bottom dollar I'd tune in to see fighters hitting Marshall Law's Somersault Kick or Kazuya's Lightning Screw Uppercut. Nothing says 'apex fighter' like mastering the chaotic elemental force of lightning in the Octagon, after all.
Featured Image Credit: Bandai Namco / UFCTopics: Tekken