Referee SMIRKS as he puts Russian MMA fighter to sleep just seconds after his opponent knocked him out (VIDEO)

It's not often that a fighter gets knocked out by both his opponent AND the referee within the space of just a few seconds, but that is exactly what happened to a fighter at a recent mixed martial arts event in Russia.

Just seconds after the start of a round, one of the fighters on a fight card this past weekend came out swinging and landed a crisp right hook to his opponent.

The blow sent the recipient of the punch tumbling to the canvas, where the fighter in the red-trimmed shorts followed up with a barrage of strikes on the ground which prompted the referee to step in and call the contest off.

In the vast majority of instances, this is where the referee's job ends – but not on this particular occasion, as the dazed loser of the fight didn't quite grasp that the fight was over, focusing his punch-drunk riposte on the fight official rather than his opponent.

Apparently acting on instinct alone, he pushed forward for a takedown on the referee against the cage but the official – who has clearly taken more than a few Brazilian Jiu Jitsu lessons in his time – delved into his own box of tricks to apply a tight guillotine choke, sending the fighter into dreamland. 

Remarkably, this meant that the losing fighter was both knocked out and choked unconscious within a 15-second span.

Where do you go from here after going 0-2 in the same night? Fight fans online had some ideas.

"Knocked out twice in the same fight... time for truck driving school," responded one fan, while another joked that he "was fighting like his life depended on it and somehow went 0-2 in one night."

"Boyyy, he got put two sleep twice in 30 seconds," said another, along with a string of laughing emojis.