This is the moment a referee was knocked out after being kicked in the head during an amateur MMA fight.

American referee Scott Manhardt was the man in charge of the IMMAF Super Cup 2022 semi final between Ireland's Lewis Byrne and Mexico's Luis Gonzalez on Thursday night.

Hosted by Brave CF, the competition runs from the beginning to the middle of March in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which is made up of teams from all over the world.

Manhardt has overseen hundreds of MMA fights over the years.

But even an experienced referee such as himself could not have predicted what would happen in the final moments of the second round.

With seconds left on the clock, Gonzalez tried to catch his opponent unawares as he attempted to land a rolling thunder kick.

WATCH: Referee Scott Manhardt gets accidentally KO'd by a rolling thunder kick during the semi final of the IMMAF Super Cup 2022

Check out the video below...

However, the Mexican's kick came on the stroke of the bell, so the referee stepped in quickly to separate the two fighters.

Unfortunately for Manhardt, while he did manage to stop Gonzalez from kicking Byrne, he took the full force of the blow instead.

He was sent crashing to the canvas after being on the receiving end what the TV commentators described as ‘the most definitive shot of the fight so far’.

Despite this, Manhardt dusted himself down before getting back to his feet, and continued to officiate the rest of the fight.

How he managed to do that after being kicked in the head we'll never know but he deserves all of the praise he is getting for such a heroic effort.

As for Gonzalez, that was the only highlight for the Mexican, as he suffered his second career defeat at the hands of Byrne to miss out on a place in the final.

Ireland will face Bahrain in the final this Saturday at the Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town.

One man who will almost certainly be watching is UFC superstar Conor McGregor who famously donated a huge sum of money to pay for the entire Irish national team to compete in the Youth World Championships last year.

The Notorious, who is the highest-paid athlete in the world according to Forbes, personally covered flights, accommodation and tournament registration for 27 athletes and 20 coaches.