The year was 2008 and the place was Brisbane Australia. Brian Ebersole was taking part in a fight under X-rules, which combined multiple combat sports into a single, Voltron-like fight where every fan in the seats would be satisfied on some level. It was in this fight Ebersole landed one of the greatest knockout blows in in guys fighting each other history with…The cartwheel kick. We caught up with The White Anderson Silva and took a blast to the past with him so we could learn the history behind this famous kick.
“The fight was called X-Rules, the first round was K-1 rules, the second round was Sanshou which is Cung Le’s sport and the third round was modified MMA. The round length went 3, 4, 5 minutes, so the round length changed with the ruleset. I was fighting a guy named Otto Merling, he had like 70 something boxing and kickboxing fights and a couple belts to his name, so he wasn’t some chump he was actually some decent kid. I had dreamt about the (cartwheel kick) one day, I’ve always looked at the spinning heel kick as a very dangerous move, the heel is the hardest part of your body and you’re creating a lot of force throwing it like that with your body. But I’m not the most flexible guy so I couldn’t throw it like the karate or kickboxing guys could. It’s kind of a freak strike too you know the way they do it, you either back away or you’re getting hit, so I was thinking of a way to throw it. Thinking ‘how could I do that to someone? And the cartwheel kind of just came.
I did it a few fights previous but I was never able to land it very well, but in this fight, well it was in the second round during Sanshou rules that I was able to grab onto him and I was able to take him down three or four times really hard. The next time when I clinched him though, he went limp in my arms so he could get his knees to the ground to stop me from throwing him. That frustrated me. So when he did that I was holding him up I looked and the ref and the ref said he was being smart, not letting me throw him on his head anymore.
So as the ref broke us and I went back to my corner, I thought ‘the hell with it, let’s have some fun‘ and threw the cartwheel kick. At the same time he threw a low inside leg kick and it looked like I Matrix’d over him, but I already had my mind set on the cartwheel, so he played into the timing and it worked out masterfully. I put my heel through his eye socket and broke his orbital. There are people on Sherdog who think I poked him in the eye with my toe and stuff, or scratched him, but I put my heel through his face, I legit broke his face. He had to have surgery and had a cut inside his eyelid. I don’t know if he’s fought again, ever. After the fight I couldn’t walk for two days on my heel. I was very ginger, I was like a princess walking on my toes for a few days, I hit him very hard and it wasn’t a matter of extra force, I just landed it clean and it worked. It was like golfing, the club did the work.”
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