There was a distinct crack a moment before Jake Ellenberger fell—this past weekend at UFC Fight Night 108 in Nashville—a sound very much like a tree makes an instant prior to toppling to the ground. It's fitting, then, that Ellenberger collapsed in much the same way, stiff and wooden, his arms reaching up like he was trying to hug God, desperately grabbing for something that wasn't there.
He would find no solace, though, divine or otherwise. Mike Perry's elbow had seen to that, sending Ellenberger to the land between this life and the next, making many watching wonder if the worst had happened, if we had all just witnessed a legal execution inside the UFC's hallowed Octagon, the perpetrator still break-dancing as medical personnel rushed to his victim's aid.