Before telling how to knock someone out, I’d like to make a short, but very important disclaimer: never use the tips below unless you’re in a dangerous situation and something or someone threatens you or your life. Otherwise fighting is breaking the law with all the consequences.

Perhaps, you think that it’s hard to knock a person out with one punch, especially after watching sports like boxing or other kinds of martial arts on video. But you should understand that professional athletes fight in gloves and they know how to avoid knockout punches. That’s completely not the case in a street fight.

In real life you wear no gloves and your opponent in most cases would not know how to avoid the bop. But first of all you should know what your goal is. You’re not going to make a black or break the nose of your opponent; you need to make him lose his consciousness as the person still can hurt you if you don’t knock him out. That means that you should not only hit hard but also imply enough force on the opponent’s head for his brain to react in a required way.

Your fist should move as rapidly as possible to cause enough movement of the head for the person to lose consciousness. Even if you are not able to hit hard, hit fast. With a fast and relatively hard punch you’ll have more chances to knock someone out than if you make a slow but more powerful punch.

Another important factor is unexpectedness. Your opponent should not see the punch coming, so that he doesn’t have time to tense the muscles of the neck, hence eliminating the strike’s power. The best time to punch is when his neck muscles are relaxed. That’s why ideally you should beat first, as your opponent would not expect that from you. If you see that the person is serious and the fight is inevitable, do not hesitate; beat first, because it’s very hard to knock a person out during fighting.

The best type of strike is hook (a side punch), as it’s harder for neck muscles to react in time. A straight punch to the face is less effective, because the person will see it earlier than the hook. An uppercut is better than a straight strike, but it’s harder to perform.

As for the hook, the further from the neck you hit the better. Considering this the best place to hit is the end of the chin. To knock the person out you can also strike the temple. Both need some training, but are not hard to perform after a bit of practice.