There were several instances of this now illegal and dangerous technique being used in the early days of the UFC. The above mentioned Frank Shamrock versus Tito Ortiz fight is one example but an earlier example took place at UFC 3. This again involved Keith Hackney in a match that established him as "The Giant Killer" when he faced the 600 pound Emmanuel Yarborough. The match initially consisted of Yarborough pursuing Hackney around the Octagon before pushing him out the door and the two going back at it until Hackney got out of Yarborough's take down. Hackney than threw back to the head strikes until the fight stopped. The fact that Hackney was able to defeat the much larger Yarborough was a miracle in and of itself. That part goes back to the whole weight class issue but the larger issue were the back to the head strikes. Not only are strikes to the back to the head now illegal but they are actually very dangerous. For this reason the technique was banned from the UFC at UFC 15. Hackney would follow the career path mentioned earlier on this list while Yarborough would fight twice more in Japan and do amateur sumo.
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.
