I don't know how this ended up in my Medium thread, but I'm glad it did. Very interesting.

As an amatuer boxer for many years and a huge action film fan, I hate the "casual knockout." I suspend belief to enjoy the story, but it makes it harder to "get into it" when Mr. Hero goes around one-punch knocking out all the bad guys.

Getting hit in the head rarely results in a knockout. I've been hit many times and never even been close to losing consciousness. That being said, you do not take a serious hit to the head and then hop back up and start fighting. Or if you do, your legs don't work. Watch the last minute of the 1986 Mike Tyson v. Trevor Berbick fight for a perfect example of this. To be clear, I've never taken a shot like Berbick took.

In most cases after getting a clean hit to the head you will be "fuzzy" for a short period of time, and not back to normal thinking for a minute or so (later in the day you won't feel so great either). That disorientation period is when the bad guy or the hero could be easily incapacitated.

I think it would do fiction (visual and written) a great deal of good to bring the audience back closer to reality regarding being hit in the head.