Hi Artemis! Interesting question!
I'm maybe not the "normal" commenter on these types of threads, but figured this was a pretty good one to throw my hat into the ring because I know my way around a fight pretty well. Most of my experience is in striking fights (olympic-style taekwondo, then K-1-rules kickboxing), so this mostly applies to rulesets where strikes are allowed.
If you want to just stop someone in their tracks and end their fight ASAP, AND you don't have rules prohibiting it, then I'd say go for the crotch, no contest. It's a smaller target on women, but not a particularly difficult one unless she's very actively defending it. Hitting it right is more a matter of angle than aim, and one hit to the bullseye may well end her night. Doesn't even have to be that hard. I speak from experience (not against me, obviously).
The perhaps less obvious reason it's a prime target is because you don't even have to connect to get a big advantage. If your opponent gets in her head that you're groin-hunting, it's going to take up a BIG chunk of her attention. She's going to try to defend it, which creates opportunities elsewhere.
Now, if those are outlawed, then you've got choices. It really depends on how confident you are in your aim, and how much firepower you're packing. Most people get winded pretty easily, so anything that makes that happen sooner is gold. Punches to the diaphragm/solar plexus area is great for that, and the right hit can cripple your opponent's ability to breathe for a few moments. Other than that, probably go for the breasts. Might not knock the fight right out of her, but it'll definitely hurt and make her mad! An angry opponent is a predictable opponent.
If you've got a baseball-bat of a kick, shin roundhouses to the outside of the thighs can work wonders in a standup fight. They were basically my bread-and-butter: beat on their lead leg until they switch legs, then just straight outbox/outkick them was my strat in a nutshell. Works less well
I wouldn't suggest liver shots. It's a hard enough target to find when someone's standing still, let alone moving around, and if you miss by a little or get the angle a little wrong, it's no better than a punch to the ribs or abs. Unless you've got her pinned and are just pounding away with punches, leave the liver shots to Bas Rutten, IMO. I also don't know about the lower belly as a target. Not saying it wouldn't work, but I've never seen any of the women I trained with get leveled by a shot there or talk much about it, so I can't say one way or the other. Might work well, might not.
Anyway, that's just my 2c based on my experience. Happy to expand on anything, if you're curious!
My my I must say I dig your response Jay. You seem like a breathe of fresh air surrounded by so many posers and fantasy fighters inundating these threads. My husband and I are both fight fanatics and participate in a lot of private fights. I have taken out an opponent with well placed shin kicks to the rear-outside knee joint of their lead leg. My husband had been telling to to wear faster opponents down by kicking the quads, shins, and knee joint but I was always afraid of kicking the opponents knee and snapping my shin.
Everyone knows that a well placed and well timed crotch shot will put all fighters, regardless of their experience or pain tolerance, flat on their ass howling in pain. But what few ladies focus on is how to land shots to the jaw with power. Well placed uppercuts and hooks that land flush on the rear of the mandible just below the ear, and even good elbows and overhand shots to the tip of the chin will cause an epic knock out of any opponent, and I truly speak from experience. As a seasoned fighter that has done all sorts of the purest forms of fighting, including bare knuckle nhb, im always looking for the perfect set up for a power shot to my opponents chin or lower jaw, nothing makes for a cleaner knockout i assure you. I've hit other girls on the jaw hard enough to make them fall totally limp and bang their heads and body parts hard enough to cause additional injury when they hit the ground. Seeing an opponent fall lifeless from a perfect jaw shot is simply orgasmic. But maybe im just weird.
