US marine fought British SAS soldier in boxing match and what happened next stunned everyone

Would 100 men beat a gorilla in a fight? How about an SAS soldier against a US Marine?

We might not be able to test the effervescent social media debate of the day to find out whether Chelsea star Cole Palmer is making the rest of us look silly by backing humans against a gorilla, but the special services scrap has been scientifically tested at least once thanks to a little known company called Universal Warriors.

In 1998, Universal Warriors promoted an event called the Commando Knock-out Challenge.

It took place in a pentagon-shaped ring, where, according to Business Insider nearly two decades later, "contestants, all of them elite servicemembers hailing from several different countries, went head-to-head in spectacular fashion."

What's not to love about that?

Of course, such an event would be nothing without putting the hardest nuts in the British and American militaries into a ring of whatever shape and size to find out once and for all who can batter who when it really matters.

In the red, white and blue corners, a member of the British Army's famously elite Special Air Service (SAS) and a straight-up badman from the US Marine Corps.

The SAS was represented by a former instructed named Carl Richardson, 171 pounds of British steel who gave up a small height advantage but carried slightly more weight than Marines reconnaissance man Matthew Ortiz.

The pre-bout trash talk was more early-nineties World Championship Wrestling jobber promo than elite special forces ribbing.

"I’m gonna bring America back to Britain and show [them] who’s boss," warned Richardson.

Ortiz clapped back: "We kicked the British out once – and we’ll do it again."

Commando Knock-out Challenge (Image: M/YouTube)

Special relationship, seconds out...

It's fair to say it wasn't the Marine Corps' night. At the end of a blistering punch-up with an ironic lack of defence, a fired-up Richardson nearly punched Ortiz out of his fatigues and won by knock-out.

Nobody in the British military will have been surprised. The SAS has a ferocious reputation.

"The Special Air Service (SAS) is famous around the world," according to the British Army Museum.

"Its highly trained men are renowned for their skills in covert surveillance, close-combat fighting and hostage rescue."