Ex-NFL receiver Morton's MMA debut doesn't last long

	Johnnie Morton lands a right just moments before being knocked out in the first round of his MMA pro debut. Kevin Terrell/WireImage.com
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LOS ANGELES -- Johnnie Morton had looked up into the piercing indigo eyes of Mike "Joker" Guymon before. The former NFL receiver had often collapsed onto the mat at Guymon's gym, Joker's Wild Fighting Academy, during the two months he spent training for his mixed martial arts debut, begging Guymon to let him relax for a moment before he was dragged up to his feet again.

This time, Morton was given all the time he needed on the mat as Guymon hovered over his pupil following Morton's fight. Morton had just been knocked out by Bernard Ackah with a jarring right hook to the left temple just 38 seconds into his MMA debut at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night.

"J-Mo, are you OK?" asked Guymon.

"Yeah, I'm OK," said Morton, slowly regaining consciousness after lying motionless on the mat for about five minutes after the knockout.

"What happened?"

"Man, you just got clipped, dude," said Guymon. "You executed what we trained, but you let him get back to his feet and you guys traded again and he stood there and you got clipped."

"Shoot," said Morton, his head in a brace after he was put on a stretcher and wheeled to a nearby ambulance. "Damn it."

Morton raised his hands at the crowd and even flashed a victory sign as the former USC receiver was carted off the same field where he earned All-American status in college. Before he was taken to nearby California Hospital for observation, his mother, Katsuko, pushed through security guards and ran toward the ambulance to check on her son's condition.

"Are you OK, Johnnie?" she asked, slightly comforted at the sight of Morton waving his hands and telling her he was fine.

"Johnnie Morton is fine," confirmed Armando Garcia, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission. "He was transported to California Hospital and we sent an inspector there with all of his medicals. He's alert, walking around and very disappointed obviously but with no obvious ill effects from the knockout."

While Morton was in good health, his future in the ring and possibly even a planned return to the NFL were left in doubt when he refused to supply a urine sample for drug testing, causing the California State Athletic Commission to suspend him indefinitely and withhold his $100,000 fight purse.

"He will not be paid and he is suspended indefinitely," said Garcia. "He refused [to submit a urine sample] on the advice of his agent, whatever that means."

Shortly after finishing his drug test, Ackah, getting dressed in the visiting locker room, was still asking promoters how Morton was doing and if he should drive to the hospital to check on him.

"I was worried because he wasn't getting up," said Ackah, a 35-year-old comedian and television personality in Japan who had only been in one MMA fight prior to knocking out Morton. "I talked to him a couple days ago and he's a very good guy. Maybe in the future he could be a good fighter but he needs more experience."