So in that video, Stephen’s and Emmett both seem to acknowledge the knee landing. Stephen’s even tries to justify the knee with his incorrect interpretation of the rules.
A knee to that spot on the skull does not have to land flush to cause damage.
Look at Poatans KO of Jamal Hill. It was a glancing blow with a glove, but still delivered enough force to knock Hill out.
An illegal blow also doesn’t even have to cause significant damage to be an illegal blow.
Both Emmett and Poitiera would not have reacted the same way in their fights if they were not trying to avoid the illegally thrown strikes, regardless of whether they landed flush.
Would you say it’s legal to say, throw a soccer kick at a downed opponents head, but not intend for it to land, but only to cause your opponent to react to it to set up another legal strike?
If that’s legal, then virtually every fighter should start to use soccer kicks feints to the head to set up their entries to ground and pound.
