Wild winger Marcus Foligno explains art of his Superman punch

Oct. 24—Wild winger Marcus Foligno went viral earlier this week. At the expense of Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon.

Toward the end off an intense 20 minutes of play on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center, Foligno and Dillon agreed to drop the gloves immediately following a faceoff at center ice.

What followed was a heavyweight bout that would've made Tyson Fury proud.

As both players waited to make the first move, Foligno faked a jab, fixated his eyes on his target, then literally left his skates to deliver a Superman punch. The move simultaneously ignited the Xcel Energy Center and set Twitter ablaze.

Marcus Foligno vs. Brenden Dillon. What a tilt pic.twitter.com/QyjS9MsXCC

— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) October 20, 2021

Even though Foligno's right fist glanced off the side of Dillon's helmet, it was enough for him to gain the upper hand. He followed it up with a series of massive haymakers before landing a nasty uppercut for good measure.

To be fair to Dillon, he more than held his own, shaking off the Superman punch and landing a few shots that appeared to put Foligno on his heels.

In the end, though, Foligno was the clear victor, and the sellout crowd showered him with cheers as he ripped off his elbow pads and raced down the tunnel.

Asked specially about the Superman punch, Foligno chalked it up as "a last second decision" designed to throw Dillon off his game. He talked about how he'd seen former NHL tough guy Kevin Bieksa do it in the past and always wondered what it felt like.

"I just always thought it was something that before I was done playing I would try it," Foligno said. "I don't know. I wasn't like, 'I'm going to fight Brenden Dillon tonight and I'm going to do it.' I've fought him before and it was a terrible fight. We kind of just strung each other out. And he's got really long arms. I just thought it could be a good opportunity to do it."

The fight between Foligno and Dillon had actually been building for about 10 minutes before both players dropped the gloves for real.

"He challenged me before and I was at the end of a long shift," Foligno said. "It didn't feel like it was the right time, so I said, 'I'll talk to you later.' And then we did."

Indeed. Though there wasn't much talking thanks to the Superman punch.

"I was really focused on not falling," Foligno said. "Obviously, I missed him a bit. It's just one of those things where I don't want to be predictable. You want to keep opponents on their toes a little bit and back them off a little bit. If I can get one shot in and the fight is over, that's always great, too."