There are plenty of fun ways to cause a knockout. Throw a front kick, as Anderson Silva did to Vitor Belfort. Use a series of punches, like Antonio Silva did to Alistair Overeem. Perhaps use a big overhand punch, like Dan Henderson has done many times. Or you could do an amazing, acrobatic kick, like the young man in this karate video from Russia did.

Lavar Johnson had a bad week. (Getty)It's been a slow week for MMA, but that doesn't mean there haven't been plenty of things for us to talk about. Here's a closer look at who is hot and who is not.

Hot — Bellator: There are few things fans love more than a fight card filled with finishes. Fans should be enthralled with Bellator's card this week, as nine fights were finished. Eight were in the first round. Bellator's only worry should be how to follow up such a performance for next week.

Not — Lavar Johnson: By now, every fighter on the UFC roster knows that the UFC is looking to trim their numbers. They have to walk the line to keep a job, and Johnson did not do that. He lost his last two fights, and then failed his UFC 157 drug test. Not surprisingly, the UFC cut him.

Hot — Marijuana: Well, kinda. Though laws on marijuana use are loosening up across the country, state athletic commissions still test for it for fights. Recognizing the change, UFC vice president Marc Ratner asked the Nevada Athletic Commission to change the way it looks at positive tests for marijuana.

Not — Dan Hardy: He called out Matt Brown, and the two were set for a bout at UFC on Fox 7. However, injury forced Hardy off the card, and Jordan Mein is stepping in to face Brown. Mein is fresh off of a win over Dan Miller.

Still taking temperature — World Series of Fighting: The new promotion's second show is Saturday night on NBC Sports Network. Will people tune in to Andrei Arlovski vs. Anthony Johnson over college basketball and wrestling? We'll find out.

The judges at Bellator's Thursday night card didn't have much work to do. Out of the 10 fights on the card, only one went to a decision. Dave Jansen won the lightweight tournament with a unanimous decision over Marcin Held.

Of the nine fights that were stopped, eight came in the first round. Three fights ended in under 20 seconds. Michael Page earned a 10-second knockout, Dave Vitkay choked out Jesse Peterson in 18 seconds, and Ryan Martinez knocked out Travis Wiuff in 18 seconds. But not all the stoppages were exciting. Marcus Davis and Waachiim Spiritwolf's fight ended in a no contest after Spiritwolf took a knee to the groin and couldn't continue.

Natasha Tretheway is the poet laureate of the United States, but she might be nervous about keeping her job after seeing this performance by UFC fighter Chael Sonnen. He spun a whole poem on how his fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones came to be. Now, this might all be fictional, but it is entertaining.

During this season of "The Ultimate Fighter," Sonnen has shown himself to be more of a coach who has opened up with his athletes. There has been less Sonnen shtick, and more Coach Chael. But it's nice to know that Sonnen can still turn it on when he needs to.

Kyle Dake from Cornell gives an opponent a lift. (AP)You've likely heard your friends and family talk about a big tournament that starts today. Surely, they were talking about the NCAA Divsion I wrestling tournament, which is happening this weekend in beautiful Des Moines, Iowa. Fighters such as Randy Couture, Phil Davis, Chael Sonnen, Josh Koscheck, Johny Hendricks, Tyron Woodley, Urijah Faber and many, many more UFC stars made their name on the mats first. Fight fans can watch wrestling all weekend on the ESPN family of networks, and here is what to watch for:

History could be made: Kyle Dake from Cornell is a three-time national champion, and he won each championship in a different weight class. If Dake wins again this year, he will be the first four-time champion with every title at a different weight class. But to win, he will have to get through Penn State's David Taylor, the returning champ at 165 lbs.

A change in the way the finals will air: Traditionally, Saturday night's finals start at 125 lbs. and work up to the heavyweight match as the "main event." This year, with so much interest in a potential Dake-Taylor match-up, the bouts will start at 174 lbs., and snake their way through the weight classes to end up at 165 lbs.

You aren't seeing double in Ohio State singlets: The Buckeyes have two no. 1 seeds in brothers Hunter and Logan Stieber. At 133, Logan is looking to repeat his 2012 NCAA championship. Younger brother Hunter took sixth last season, but earned the top seed with a record of 31-0.

Mizzou's big and little threat: The Tigers made history this year by beating Iowa for the first time in history, and they want to keep up their winning ways. Alan Waters is the no. 1 seed at 125 lbs., the smallest weight at the tournament, and Dom Bradley is no. 1 at heavyweight, giving Missouri bookend threats for national titles.

Penn State looking for three-peat: With stars like Taylor and Ed Ruth returning, Penn State is looking for their third straight national team title. They walked in ranked first, but will face challenges from Iowa powered by three-time national champ Matt McDonough, Oklahoma State with Jordan Oliver, Minnesota, Missouri, and Cornell, a school who has perfected the art of peaking at the right time.

Click here for more information on when and where you can tune in. If you have questions while watching, tweet me here as I'll be at the Wells Fargo watching the action.

The UFC gave a backstage look at Georges St-Pierre's win over Nick Diaz at UFC 158, complete with an adorable shot at the end of GSP high-fiving a young fan who was dressed like the champ from head to toe.

According the GSP's trainer, Firas Zahabi, it's a fight the UFC welterweight champion went through with despite an injury. Zahabi said GSP injured his Achilles tendon during training for the fight, and it may have worsened during the bout.

"I was worried it would tear during the fight," Zahabi told MMAFighting.com. "We had to cut his last sparring [session] short due to his injury. He had a week to rest it and then the fight."

Does finding out that GSP was injured changed your opinion of his performance? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

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(USA Today Sports Images)Football players training in MMA is nothing new. NFLers including Aldon Smith, Jared Allen and Arthur Jones train with some of the sport's best fighters in the off-season.

Former players have gotten into MMA, as well. Herschel Walker had a storied career on the football field before he started with Strikeforce. Matt Mitrione played for several NFL teams before becoming a heavyweight in the UFC.

But a current pro football player in a fight? That's different. Chad Owens, who won the Canadian Football League's Most Outstanding Player last season and whose team won the Grey Cup, is debuting in a fight in Hawaii on Apr. 6. He will fight Junyva Tevaga at Destiny: Na Koa III, in the bout that is both men's MMA debut.

According to Owens, he's looking for a new challenge.

"I wanted to get into something new. A new challenge. Something to keep me hungry. I always wanted to get into it sometime and this off season I thought would be the perfect time," Owens said to Hawaii News Now.

According to the Toronto Star, Owens is not in danger of breaching his contract with the fight. Still, do you think it's a risk worth taking? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Thanks to the 55-Yard Line.

(Getty)MMA and professional wrestling share plenty of fans. After all, it was the WWE's lead-in to "The Ultimate Fighter" years ago that helped make the show a success on Spike. Brock Lesnar was a huge star in pro wrestling before becoming the UFC heavyweight champion. After losing his belt and retiring from MMA, he went back to WWE. But could even the most ardent fans of both sports couldn't expect to see the executives of the UFC and WWE take each other on, right?

Well, according to UFC president Dana White, he was once challenged to a match by WWE chairman Vince McMahon.

"Vince is too old, which he won't think he is and he'll go crazy," White said during an interview with Canada's RDS. "He wanted to do that one time. Vince wanted to fight me. Swear to God, he called me up and said, `Let's do it. We can either do it in the UFC or let's do it at WrestleMania.' And I said, `You are crazy. I always said I respect Vince and I'll say it again. I respect Vince very much, but Vince is too old to be fighting."

MMA Fighting says this happened in 2010, when McMahon was 65 and White was 41. McMahon was ready to make the headline event of Wrestlemania 27 a staged or real match between him and White. But White didn't ever entertain the idea.

"I laughed and said, 'You're crazy, you're out of your mind,' White said on Fuel TV. "In the interview (the night before), I said Vince was too old. We're both too old. I'm too old, too, just for the record."

But crazy ideas helped McMahon become the gajillionaire he is today. Would you spend the money on a pay-per-view to watch men who are "too old" in a pro wrestling match? Speak up in the comments, Facebook or on Twitter.