A 69-year-old tai chi master was knocked unconscious after just 30 seconds into his bout with a 50-year-old former martial arts coach and amateur fighter.

The fight, as with many such fights before this, was to pit a traditional Chinese martial artist against a contemporary fighter skilled in modern fight techniques that are employed in real-life bouts.

The younger MMA practitioner Wang Qingmin took on the more senior Ma Baoguo in the fight on Sunday, May 17, held in the Shandong city of Zibo.

The younger amateur fighter looked slightly confused when he comfortably knocked the supposed master onto the ground, where he laid motionless.

The action starts around two minutes into the video.

Took a beating

Ma was knocked to the ground three times within 30 seconds and was repeatedly punched in the face.

Tai chi master's braggadocio

The South China Morning Post labelled this mismatch a "kung foolery" moment.

Ma claims to be a master of Hunyuan Tai Chi.

He has made a name for himself on social media as he promoted what many observers called “kung fu fakery”.

Ma claims to have a ball of energy in his hand.

Ma also claimed to have defeated British MMA fighter Peter Irving in a match a few years ago.

Irving claimed that he got paid to film the fight, which was a vanity project for Ma.

And not long ago, Ma courted controversy when he teased “stupid” mainland UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili and even challenged her to a fight.

Zhang recently rearranged her opponent's face in her UFC bout:

Many observers have questioned Ma’s ability.

Ma almost faced Xu Xiaodong

The current trend, popularised by “Mad Dog” MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong, is to go around exposing fake fighters.

Xu had called a tai chi “grandmaster” a fraud, while vowing to expose “fake” martial arts by beating them down easily.

Ma previously accepted Xu’s challenge.

But their match was stopped by police in Shanghai just minutes before it was set to take place back in 2017.