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Christos Giagos vs. Dakota Cochrane
RFA 17 “Cochrane vs. Giagos”
Aug. 22 | Sioux Falls, S.D.
Jesse Denis: While Christos Giagos’ flying knee obliteration of Dakota Cochrane springs to my mind as one of the best knockouts of 2014, I remember walking away from the bout initially more upset than elated about the violence I’d just witnessed. After sprawling out on a takedown attempt from Cochrane, Christos stepped back, faked a punch and took flight: “Air Spartan” cracked the TUF veteran’s chin with a beautiful flying knee, sending him straight to Elysium. It was referee Bobby Wombacher, however, who put a damper on the beautiful moment from Giagos, as he stood back and did nothing absolutely nothing.

“When I hit him, I saw his eyes roll up into the back of his head, and I really didn’t want to hit him again, but the referee wasn’t stopping it. I didn’t want him to wake up, but I paused and saw the ref, not stepping in, so I had to,” he told me and TJ De Santis on the Sherdog Radio Network's “Beatdown.” Shoddy refereeing aside, the frustration has cooled between then and now and I can now look back at this fondly and remember it not only as the young lightweight’s second regional title win in three months, but the moment that would punch his ticket to the UFC.

TJ De Santis: At MMA's highest level, there is no excuse for gassing out, especially when the needle hits empty in the middle part of the second round and Dakota Cochrane learned this the hard way back in August. They say fatigue can make cowards out of men, but it can also put you on the wrong end of a highlight reel knockout.

Flying knees, when executed and landed correctly, are MMA’s sweetest treat for me. The victim can see their opponent rushing in at them, but they have just a split second to move to the side and dodge that freight train. On that August night in Sioux Falls, Cochrane failed to get out of the way. Giagos knew immediately that his prone opponent had nothing left to offer, however, referee Bobby Wombacher wasn't there to call it and just stood there looming, so Giagos needed to get a few extra punches in. Regardless of some poor refereeing, the first-ever sanctioned MMA card in South Dakota ended with fireworks and one of the best knockouts of the whole year.

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