While we would never advocate unprovoked violence, one never knows when how to deliver a knockout punch could become a lifesaving piece of knowledge. Being able to knock a man out with single punch is no easy task, even for a big man with all the physical tools and knowledge. It's something that requires proper technique and loads of practice.

This guide will take you through the basic technique for three different knockout blows, but the distance from a knockout blow on a computer screen to reality is enormous. After reading this, the next step will be stepping in front of a heavy bag, and practice the motion thousands of times, preferably under the supervision of a knowledgeable trainer. Then, try some light sparring to gain some experience hitting a moving target. Some thick hand wraps and a set of good boxing gloves will help protect your hands from abuse as you train. Aside from practicing, watching a few boxing matches and learning from the pros is not a bad idea.

Learning to throw a knockout punch is not an overnight process; people can fight for years without throwing a one-punch knockout. But after learning and mastering the proper technique, building up core strength, and gaining confidence, you can build yourself into a Mike Tyson-esque knockout puncher.

For a right-handed person, the straight right hand punch or right cross punch is one average the strongest punch. While one's natural instinct in a fight is to start throwing wild hay-maker punches, the straight right is a short, economical blow that, delivered to the point of the jaw, has a better chance than any other of knocking a man from his senses.

To deliver it, you start in the standard fighting stance: left shoulder forward, weighit on your back foot, hips closed, knees slightly bent, feet roughly shoulder length apart. The straight right punch starts in the legs and the hips. You open your hips and push off with your back leg, rolling your wait onto your front leg as you go. You begin to twist your upper body forward as shoulders follow your hips and waist. At this point, your entire body is twisting counterclockwise and leaning forward into the blow. Driven by all the accumulated force of the above motions, you send your right hand out ahead of your twisting shoulders, looking for the shortest possible distance to your opponent's jaw. Again, it's not necessarily a flashy blow, and almost certainly not your quickest one, but with the collective power of every part of your lower body behind it, it is a heavy one. If you hit him on the point of the chin with all of your might, the back ends of his jaw bone will ram against the arteries supplying blood to the brain, cutting off the flow ever so quickly. When this happens, your man will drop, and you will have delivered a knockout straight right hand. George Foreman's knockout of Michael Moorer in the 1994 heavyweight title fight is a perfect example of the simple right cross thrown to devastating effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!videos=zJEqSWaU3pM&v=U0SONoA5L1g

Sometimes, if an opponent is conscious not to stay in front of your right hand, is looking for that punch more than any other, or is crowding you so much that you can't get any extension on the right hand, a left hook punch is a better option for a knockout. But unlike the wild left hand you see in the typical street fight, the classic left hook is a short shot.

Starting from the standard right-hand stance, to initiate the left you hook you crouch down ever so slightly, and square up your hips and chest, though without changing the position of your feet. In other words, you twist yourself like a corkscrew. Without dropping your sharply bent left elbow (so as not to lose force later), you cock your left hand back around your ear. Then, pushing off from your right foot, you drive your hips, midsection, and shoulders closed. Your backside should slide forward as you twist around. Your cocked left arm, shaped like a hook, slams forward at the leading edge of this motion, with the target being the right side of the opponent's jaw.

Punching downstairs doesn't provide the head-cracking fireworks, but it can be just as devastating if you know how to do it correctly. The most common knockout body punch is the left hook to the liver.

The opening motion for the left hook punch to the liver is basically the same as the left hook to the jaw, only for the former, you are slightly more crouched over, and the knees are slightly more bent. Instead of lunging forward and up, with hook to the liver you drive forward, and you throw the punch a bit wider, so as to get around the lowered right elbow serving as the opponent's guard against the body punch. Toward that end, sometimes it helps to lean back slightly as you deliver the hook to the liver, so as to put more leverage on it as you drive it around the elbow guard. A left hook delivered to the liver causes a delayed reaction; a few seconds after it is landed, the victim will double over on his knees, with difficulty breathing and suffering from intense pain.

A good example of a classic knockout liver hook is Bernard Hopkins' knockout of Oscar De la Hoya in 2004. http://www.youtube.com/watch#!videos=AV_yDZQKjDs&v=ZEqIrWhjmZM