Clinical in her pursuit of glory

Getting knocked out in an MMA bout, yet waking up at the hospital realizing it was a doctor that just put you in coma...It's quite possible for anyone who squares up against Shi Ming in the ring.

Shi, a full-time traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, stole the show at the Ultimate Fighting Championship's return to Macao over the weekend, by delivering a sensational knockout win to earn a contract with the Las Vegas-based organization — while revealing her Octagon alter-ego, which was not even known by many of her closest friends.

The genial and softly spoken "Doctor Shi", despite entering the tournament as an unlikely contender to win it all, turned out to be the surprise of the year after she won the "Road to UFC" finale in Macao on Saturday, earning her a place among the promotion's competitive strawweight division, which is currently ruled by fellow Chinese fighter Zhang Weili.

Shi did it in ferocious style, which some might consider to be at odds with her day job — relaxing muscles and soothing pains as an acupuncturist at a Kunming-based hospital.

Outsized by her final opponent, compatriot Feng Xiaocan, Shi wowed the capacity crowd at the Galaxy Arena when she caught Feng off guard early in the third round with a vicious head kick that knocked her opponent clean out. She wasn't done there, securing her KO win by raining another four blows on her stricken opponent, before being pulled away by the referee with four minutes and 14 seconds left.