Crouching Patrick Williams, Flying Chris Beal

Chris Beal and Patrick Williams got UFC 172 of to a flying start. After an entertaining and unorthodox first round between the two debuting fighters, Beal landed one of the most perfect flying knees in UFC history.

Beal was Ronda Rousey’s first male fighter picked on TUF 18. He injured his hand in his fight to get into the house. Team Tate knew this and chose him to fight first against eventual season champion Chris Holdsworth. While Holdsworth may have still won that fight, the injured hand certainly hurt Beal.

After the season, Beal was not offered a fight and had to get another TKO win for BAMMA USA in March. Coming off that win he finally got his shot at the UFC against the debuting Williams who comes out of the famed ASU wrestling program.

Williams had a very awkward style that involved a lot of movement. He was launching himself from long distance firing takedown attempts, kicks, knees and punches. He was running around the ring both offensively and defensively. He won the first three minutes of the round. Beal started to catch him coming in and on the exits as the first round ended.

As they started the second round, Beal got more comfortable and was tagging Williams consistently. He was only able to land one clean shot before Williams either tied him up or bolted away.

Then Beal came forward as Williams was against the cage and could not run away. Instead he ducked forward as Beal launched himself forward with a movie like flying knee. It looked like that in slow motion because the timing was so perfect it looked like a setup.

The sound of it combined with Williams going down let you know it was real and Beal had made a spectacular first impression in the octagon. Check out the GIF below via ZombieProphet.