David "Tank" Abbott burst onto the scene at UFC 6 when he knocked out his first two opponents before fighting to exhaustion and submitting to Oleg Taktarov. To say the least both men would go onto establish themselves as pioneers of the early UFC and MMA in general. However, there was one part of that intense finals match that was questionable by today's standards. When Abbott had Taktarov on his back he force his thumb in his mouth in what is known as a fishhook. A little on the gross side. Once again doesn't make sense that it was legal but it was initially. Very few rules meant there was a lot that wasn't legal. It probably wasn't as much of an issue when taking into consideration the fact that mouth pieces weren't mandatory at the time. Fishhooks became illegal shortly after at Ultimate Ultimate 1995. Abbott still caused some controversy but not like this.
Matthew Salzer fell in love with Mixed Martial Arts when he watched Pride Fighting Championships on Japanese TV. He is a lifelong wrestler having earned a Bachelor of Science at Missouri Baptist University. Matthew is the Senior Editor at MMA Freak and has written for Funky Monkey MMA, H4 Entertainment, and MMA Fiends.
