Central line closed under hackney- explosives planned

Ireland · Jul 1, 2012

Central line closed under hackney- explosives planned

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=imnDrWCV0hw

Ireland · Jul 1, 2012

sorry mods could you move this to general

Bigg Panch · Jul 1, 2012

Fedor was always overrated

WiDDoW_MaKeR · Jul 2, 2012

Keith Hackney?

Stoo · Jul 2, 2012

Rickson by armbar!

Rob_Floyd · Jul 2, 2012

No reason why this shouldn't be a Keith Hackney thread.

This content is protected

LHL · Jul 2, 2012

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G45qBjpMlSU[/ame]

Stoo · Jul 2, 2012

ohhh ****...now you've done it!

This content is protected

This content is protected

Greco · Jul 3, 2012

Keith "Just bustin ya ballz" Hackney was the man!

Stoo · Jul 3, 2012

The only good thing about Sherdog these days are these types of articles

Keith Hackney: Where Is He Now?
The Giant Killer

This content is protected

Held on Sept. 9, 1994, UFC 3 had some notable tweaks from its two predecessors. It remained in a one-night, tournament format but with an eight-man field, instead of 16. The canvas, previously white, was replaced with a more viewer-friendly blue. It was, in a sense, a social phenomenon coming to terms with its own success, which was accompanied by an equal dose of notoriety.

Naturally, that was exactly when Art Davie, then co-owner of the UFC, made the call to Keith Hackney. It came during the peak time for Hackneys primary business, a heating and air conditioning company he founded in 1980 and still runs today.

His background included boxing, tang soo do, five years of kenpo and a year of high school wrestling, in which he made the state tournament as a 98-pound sophomore. After Hackney responded to a magazine ad, event organizers told him the roster was full but that, perhaps, a future slot could be in the works.

He said somebody backed out and they had a space for me. It was one week before the fight, Hackney says. I thought if I said no, they wouldnt call me back in the future, so I said, I dont care. Ill fight. Get me on a plane. Art said, Whoa! Let me tell you who youre competing against. I didnt care. I wanted to fight.

The lineup included two-time tournament champ Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, a terrifying muscled guy who went by the nom de guerre of Kimo and a 600-pound sumo fighter, Emmanuel Yarborough. Hackney flew into Charlotte, N.C, on Thursday night, and despite the UFCs subtle efforts to trim away the rougher edges of the event, his debut reminded everyone watching that an ass kicking is exactly that.

We had a press conference Friday. I was kinda sent to the dogs. They had a punch bowl and envelopes with our names in them in a circle, he says. Jim Brown was picking them out of the punch bowl at random. The first guy they picked was the sumo guy, and the second was me.

It was on, like Donkey Kong.

Yarboroughs manager told my kids to break out their piggy banks and bet on him and [jokingly] suggested I take a dive, Hackney says. That was funny.

Birth of The Giant Killer

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. Hackneys 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.

The gameplan was simple -- kick ass. To be realistic, the behemoth was fat, but he was as strong as he was rotund.

He was curling 315 pounds 20 times in a row on camera, says the 5-foot-11, 200-pound Hackney. We talked about kicking his legs, but what kind of leg kick are you going to do on him? I went in there to give him the fight of his life, and whether I won or lost, he was gonna know he was in a fight.

J.Sherwood

Hackney aimed to put his kids
through college with the money.
After some back-and-forth in the bout -- which included Hackney spilling out of the cage when Yarborough rammed him against the door -- he went for the kill.

Its 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.

Yarborough crumpled from the blow, delivered by Hackney while he leaped through the air. Turtled up, the massive sumo man was suddenly human and could not get back to his feet. Hackney turned on the afterburners, hammering home a series of winging rights, breaking his hand in the process, and flinging more at Yarboroughs head to finish the job.

The announcer was yelling, He has no chokes! Im thinking, You idiot. This guys head is bigger than a basketball. Do you know how big his neck is? I tried to pound on his head like nails on a roof, Hackney says. I put two knuckles into an eye socket. If it
was a normal guy, Id have crushed his skull.

Hence, his nickname, The Giant Killer, was spawned. With his hand injured from the Yarborough bout, Hackney was informed by the attending physician that he could not continue. It was a bittersweet exit.

With a $1000 purse, he was disappointed that he couldnt continue to the semifinals against Ken Shamrock, which paid $5000, putting him a win away from the $64,000 bonanza for the tournament winner. Ultimately, the prize went to yet another substitute, Steve Jennum, who defeated Harold Howard when Shamrock could not continue after his win over Felix Mitchell. Gracie faced a similar predicament. Banged up and exhausted after his titanic struggle with Kimo Leopoldo, the two-time UFC tournament winner was in no shape to advance, either.

Realistically, I went in to win that $64,000 to put my kids through college, Hackney says. I came there two days before and didnt know the rules. I later found out if Id gone into the cage against Ken and then thrown in the towel like Royce did against Howard, Id have gotten the five grand. I was pissed afterward.

Facing a Legend

Three months later, UFC 4 loomed. With his hand still ailing, Hackney went ahead and fought anyway.

By now, the opponent selection process had evolved, from a punch bowl to a lottery. Hackney drew Joe Son, who, at 5-foot-4 and 236 pounds, had accompanied Leopoldo into the ring at UFC 3, charged-up and screaming at the top of his lungs.

The lottery bowl -- they bring it out and its going in slow motion, Hackney says. Apparently, there were some problems with it. They had Royces ball in the thing, and its like: What is this bulls--t? Its barely moving, the ball lifts up, and he gets Ron van Clief [for his first opponent]. After that, the machine is working fantastic. I got Joe Son.

Its a White Crane
strike, an open hand
palm that comes in a
circle and straight
over the top like
an overhand right

-- Hackney on his famous strike

Hackney had another competitive tussle, and once more ended the fight memorably. After Son drove to take him down, he slid across the mat while sprawling. Then, in side mount with his foe stretched out on his back, Hackney uncorked what would become known as the Nut Shot Heard round the World.

The way I looked at it, when we stepped into that cage, we were fighting within the rules. I didnt bite or eye gouge anybody. They were the only things you werent allowed to [do], but if you did it, youd just lost $1,000, he says. But nobody said anything about groin shots. Id probably do some different things today.

After softening up Son -- along with any male viewing the event for the first time -- with the below-the-belt blows, Hackney then applied a choke for the tapout at 2:44. Fittingly, the clip of the punches was used later on a Fox News report in 2008, when Son was arrested after a DNA sample linked him to a 1990 gang ****.

While they were on the news that this UFC guy did whatever, they had a picture of me smacking him in the balls, saying he got what he deserved, Hackney says.
Click to expand...

Stoo · Jul 3, 2012

Part 2

Finally, Hackney had Gracie in his sights. The Brazilian eventually submitted Hackney with an armbar, but it was tougher fight than he usually endured. Hackney stuffed Gracie’s first takedown attempt and landed a few glancing rights, as the UFC hall of famer worked to clinch and get him to the mat.

“I was looking forward to fighting him,” Hackney says. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Royce.”

After pulling guard, Gracie put the bout where he always wanted them -- on the mat, where his jui-jitsu simply overwhelmed opponents. However, Hackney made him work for the eventual armbar submission, even landing a thudding right hand and giving the champion some tense moments. Along with the Leopoldo bout at UFC 3, it was a rare glimpse into Gracie looking vulnerable, something rarely seen in those early days of his steamroller dominance.

“I was throwing crosses, and I should have been throwing uppercuts,” says Hackney, detailing the lengthy clinch battle the duo engaged in against the cage. “I stuck my hand in his gi. I wanted to control the ring and make him get frustrated, make him work. I came pretty close.

“The thing is the Octagon is set up on different angles,” he adds. “If you had bare feet, like I did, the vinyl at that time was better for wrestling shoes. You see how I slipped across the canvas against Joe Son. The one time I caught Royce, I thought I’d knocked him out. He was down on the ground and I dropped a bomb on his head, and it had no place to go. I have a picture of him with knuckle marks on his forehead afterward, and he signed it for me. He’s a good guy. Every time he came in, he fought his heart out.”

Exactly one year later, Hackney returned at Ultimate Ultimate 95. He faced Marco Ruas, who had torn through UFC 7, winning the tournament with three impressive performances. While Ruas was Brazilian, his game represented an evolutionary step from the jiu-jitsu-based approach Gracie took. “The King of the Streets” could stand and strike and had plenty of experience on the Vale Tudo circuit in Brazil. After a feeling-out process on the feet, Ruas took down Hackney, then took his back and submitted him with via rear-naked choke at 2:39.

Distractions plagued Hackney.

“I was actually in Denver for two weeks, which was too long. I was trying to run my business from my hotel room. I was on the phone all the time. I was getting ready for the fight, not to take anything away from Marco. He’s a nice guy. I was 195, and he was much bigger. He was a little stronger than me,” he says. “I did a million interviews [beforehand]. It was crazy. My head wasn’t in the fight. If you walk in there and your head’s not straight, you’re in trouble.”

Marco Ruas File Photo

All four of Hackney’s bouts
were against memorable foes.
After the Ruas bout, Hackney retired. He had too much at risk if he were injured competing, especially since he was already a successful businessman. His record was 2-2, and it was time to move on.

“You have to look at it. I was [grossing] about two million dollars [annually] in the heating business. I could break my hand, leg or back versus that sumo guy. You made $1,000, and there was no insurance, I think, until UFC 6,” he says. “You had to sign a half-inch thick contract, so even if you died, your family couldn’t sue. Basically, they owned you.”

Still the Same Tireless Worker

Hackney’s heating and air conditioning business has grown steadily. He has been doing it for 30 years and now mainly focuses on commercial clients. His longtime gym, Hackney’s Combat Academy, has been a fixture in Illinois, and he recently opened a second outlet. Between the two facilities, there are 300 students, and he has been training in MMA ever since his UFC days.

“We do installations, service the whole shop, and we have about 150 strip malls we work with and have six trucks,” Hackney says. “So I can’t complain. I’ve accumulated a lot of real estate, too. I’ve got my promotional events, and I’m about to retire from the heating business in the next two or three years and run my promotion full-time. We’re flipping a lot of homes, and I’ve got my two schools I’m running. Right now, I’m working from six in the morning until 11 at night.”

Hackney, 52, seems excited about his latest venture -- American Predator Fighting Championship. The promotion holds amateur shows in Illinois and plans to move into doing professional events, as well. Hackney hopes to build it into a staple of the Midwest MMA scene, operating as a feeder for the big shows.

“We’re looking to be a steppingstone for them. I don’t want to try and compete with the UFC. I don’t have $200 million dollars,” he says with a laugh. “We want to put guys into UFC or Strikeforce and take the guys that used to fight there and give them a chance to work their way back.”

Hackney’s team includes a handful of professionals and several amateurs -- about 25 overall. He has also worked hard to impart his experience and wizened eye to steer people away from the sport if they do not have the right reasons for getting into it.

“Don’t fight just for the money. I tell them you shouldn’t be fighting until at least a full year of training. Work on your conditioning and technique,” he says. “There are a lot of people that will use these types of guys and make money off them, so they need to go to a gym looking out for their well-being, with somebody that knows what they’re doing, with the right tools and people around them.

“Everybody I know today, people that are real, not someone with a shaved head and tats, all the fighters I’ve dealt with are good guys,” Hackney adds. “Some of the best people I’ve met in life have been through fighting. I love this sport. That’s why it’s been great doing my heating company and making money, running the organization, doing fight promotions. I’m looking forward to doing this for the next 20 years.”
Click to expand...

LHL · Jul 3, 2012

Hackney broke every rule known to combat in the early UFC's. Not just talking about the nut shots either.

Lefthooktommy · Jul 3, 2012

Rob_Floyd said: ↑

No reason why this shouldn't be a Keith Hackney thread.

This content is protected

Click to expand...

He should be given a medal for busting that piece of shits balls. :happy

Stoo · Jul 3, 2012

Yeah with hindsight...

Keith Hackney, American hero

Ireland · Jul 27, 2012

hm

Log in or Sign up

Central line closed under hackney- explosives planned

Ireland Guest

Ireland Guest

Bigg Panch The Dopest Full Member

WiDDoW_MaKeR ESB Hall of Fame Member Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Rob_Floyd Boxing Junkie Full Member

LHL Captain Freedom Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Greco Boxing Addict Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

LHL Captain Freedom Full Member

Lefthooktommy Natural Born Killer Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Ireland Guest

Log in or Sign up

Forums

Central line closed under hackney- explosives planned

Ireland Guest

Ireland Guest

Bigg Panch The Dopest Full Member

WiDDoW_MaKeR ESB Hall of Fame Member Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Rob_Floyd Boxing Junkie Full Member

LHL Captain Freedom Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Greco Boxing Addict Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

LHL Captain Freedom Full Member

Lefthooktommy Natural Born Killer Full Member

Stoo Obsessed with Boxing banned

Ireland Guest