Things were different back in 1994. Ace of Base and Boyz II Men dominated the charts; hockey players and pro wrestlers brandished non-ironic mullets; and men fought each other in an octagon-shaped cage for an organization which allowed any technique short of eye gouging and biting.
Keith Hackney was one of those men. Where most fighters go an entire career without being involved in an iconic moment, VHS tapes immortalized Hackney twice during MMA’s infancy. Sherdog’s Jason Probst caught up with Hackney to reflect on his short-lived fighting career.
Hackney made his debut at UFC 3 after getting a call from then UFC co-owner Art Davie a week out from the event. He drew a 600-pound sumo fighter by the name of Emmanuel Yarborough in the first round. Probst summarizes the fight:
What ensued was something that simply cannot be replicated today, its potent combination of freak-show violence and small-man budo compressed into 1:59 of chaotic scrapping. Hackney’s destruction of Yarborough was a first in the modern annals of David versus Goliath-style beatings, and he became an instant fan favorite by toppling a man who weighed three times more than him — and was 6-foot-8, to boot. Since then, the sport has provided countless moments to remember, but Hackney-Yarborough remains one of those gems that seems impossible to replicate. You could not un-see it.
Hackney describes the blow that put the mammoth down:
“It’s a White Crane strike, an open hand palm that comes in a circle and straight over the top like an overhand right,” Hackney recalls. “We worked on that in kenpo. I went for the center of the nose to smash the nose through the head, but I kind of caught him off-side on an angle.”
Hackney injured his hand during the mugging, and was forced to pull out of the tournament. He returned at UFC 4; this time drawing the 5’4″ and 236-pounds Joe Son. Finding himself in side control and with only two rules to account for, Hackney used a technique traditionally reserved for feuding brothers – he punched Joe Son square in the groin. Six times.
“The way I looked at it, when we stepped into that cage, we were fighting within the rules. I didn’t bite or eye gouge anybody. They were the only things you weren’t allowed to [do], but if you did it, you’d just lost $1,000,” he says. “But nobody said anything about groin shots. I’d probably do some different things today.”
Hackney eventually choked out Joe Son at 2:44. The state of California would later implicate Joe Son for participation in a 1990 gang rape, and faces a maximum of 275 years to life if convicted. Fox News used the Hackney clip when reporting on the story in 2008.
Check out the full Sherdog story for Hackney’s recollections of fighting Royce Gracie and Marco Ruas.