If you were thoroughly impressed with Jorge Masvidal and Cory Sandhagen for their flying knee finishes, you probably didn’t see the handiwork of Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto.
It happened in 2006 at K-1 Hero’s 5 against Kazuyuki Miyata, a decorated freestyle wrestler who represented Japan at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I mention this because as Yamamoto proved, the flying knee has been and will always be an effective anti-wrestler weapon.
There were similarities with the Masvidal-Ben Askren scenario. Miyata set his feet, dipped his head, and seemingly attempted a level change to shoot for a takedown as soon as he saw Yamamoto charging at him.