A large percentage of the population does their very best to avoid fighting. Hell, most grown adults are embarrassed of the one or two fights they had in during Junior High. But there is a completely separate group of people in the world that decide their life’s goal is to get into physical altercations.
So it really should not come as a surprise that there are some pretty ridiculous and over-the-top personalities in the world of mixed martial arts. And we all know that when you put that many combustible personalities and elements in a confined space, an explosion is inevitable.
There are a lot of weird stories from the ring/octagon, some of which we will touch on, but it’s when you let those people loose into the rest of the population that you get the really weird things.
From banana hammocks and drinking piss to physically assaulting porn star girlfriends and murdering sparring partners, here are the weirdest stories that involve MMA fighters.
15 15. Gilbert Yvel’s Ridiculous Disqualifications
You are likely never going to hear a good word spoken about Gilbert Yvel. ‘The Hurricane may go down in the history books as the greasiest man in the history of MMA. Yvel has three disqualifications on his record and they are all due to some pretty heinous actions.
During an early match in Yvel’s career he decided he did not like the way the referee was calling the action, so he clean punched the ref in the head and kicked him on the ground.
That’s not to mention when he tried to claw an opponent’s eye out or when he bit another fighter.
14 14. Dennis Hallman’s Banana Hammock
Audiences paid their hard earned money to watch UFC 133 and see the best fighters in the world clash in a battle of testicular fortitude. Instead they got Dennis Hallman in a thong.
According to Hallman, he lost a bet, which to this day he has not told the public what this bet was, which stipulated that he needed to wear this atrocity on front of thousands.
Though Hallman was able to laugh it off, UFC President Dana White said he was horrified and no other fighter would ever do that again.
13 13. Randy Couture Just as Brutal on a Mic
UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture is one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts, but he can also throw some mean punches on a mic.
‘The Natural’ was the subject of a roast in 2015 and when he got the chance to talk, he said some pretty odd things.
Of Chael Sonnen Couture said, “That latest shipment of get-me-big juice gets stopped at the border and your wife finds you on the stairwell like a 6-foot-2, drained condom, laying there.”
Couture was not done saying that Dan Henderson “looks like he ran a 40-yard dash in a 30-yard gym.”
Boom, roasted!
12 12. Lyoto Machida Drinks His Own Piss
Lyoto Machida will always be looked at as one of the greats in mixed martial arts history. What was his secret?
Apparently 'The Dragon' drank his own urine.
Machida wakes up each and every morning and takes a big swig of his own piss. Apparently 'urine therapy' is a big thing in Japan and supposedly has been used as a way to increase health for years. When asked in a 2009 interview, Machida very simply listed all the positive vitamins that his urine contains.
And, just so you know, the taste depends on what you ate the day before, according to Machida.
11 11. Bas Rutten Almost Beat-up Brian Urlacher
We all know that Bas Rutten is a badass, but apparently Brian Urlacher was never a big fan of MMA.
Once at a charity event Rutten stepped on Urlacher’s foot. Now, according to Rutten, he apologized to the former Pro Bowl linebacker and offered to buy him another drink.
Despite frequent attempts to remain civil, Urlacher supposedly asked Rutten if he wanted to step outside. To which Rutten, who holds black belts in four separate disciplines, willingly accepted.
Luckily for Urlacher, the bouncers stopped this attempt at a fight before Rutten could beat the hell out of him.
10 10. Please, Don’t Kiss the Crazy Horse
Most fans will remember Heath Herring as the crazy cowboy who would stroll down to the octagon sporting his cowboy hat and crazy hair, but he also infamous for one of the biggest cheap shots in MMA history.
Herring was set to face-off against Yoshihiro Nakao in a kickboxing show on New Year’s Eve 2005. As the two squared off with the ref stating his usual spiel, Nakao decided to give Herring a kiss.
‘The Texas Crazy Horse’ then promptly knocked Nakao’s head off and laid him out right then and there. The fight was obviously called off and eventually called a no contest.
9 9. Rampage Jackson Goes on a Car Chase
Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson has never been one to keep his mouth shut and apparently it is not a good thing to try and stop him, as police in Costa Mesa, California learned.
Police attempted to pull Jackson over for talking on his cell phone while driving in 2008. Rampage then proceeded to flee from the cops, causing several car collisions in the process of his five minute chase.
After the fact, Jackson said he was trying to rush to a friend’s aid that was going to commit suicide. In that same interview Rampage would say the media focuses too much on fighters personal lives.
8 8. Jacob Volkmann vs. Barack Obama
Several MMA fighters have tried to make a positive impact in the community, but Jacob Volkmann took it a tad too far.
Volkmann called the President of the United States an “idiot” after UFC 125, which got him visited by the secret service.
But that was not enough for the loudmouth fighter.
After a victory at UFC 141, Volkmann decided that Barack Obama needed a “glassectomy.” And for those who have no clue what that is, Volkmann explains that “it's where they remove the belly button and put a piece of glass in there so you can see what you're doing while your head's up your ass.”
7 7. Bas Rutten Walks Into a Swedish Bar...
Back in the old days, before the UFC was massively popular, MMA guys went to bars and got into trouble. Rutten knew something was up when he entered this Swedish bar after the bouncers approached him and told him to keep calm.
Rutten got the old bar toss and the bouncers decided to get a little too violent. Rutten then preceded to knockout several bouncers before the security got themselves a bunch of broom handles.
After that brawl, Rutten ended up being tossed in prison after finding out one of the bouncers was a cop.
Apparently that never happened to Rutten again.
6 6. Kevin Randleman Loses to the Floor
UFC 24 was supposed to feature Kevin Randleman's first title defense of the UFC Heavyweight title, an event with the clever title of “First Defense.” That did not happen because Randleman fell.
During the card in Lake Charles, Louisiana, viewers were informed that Randleman slipped on a pipe backstage and hit his head off the concrete floor. The then Heavyweight champion was knocked out cold and taken to the hospital.
‘The Monster’ was diagnosed with a concussion upon being revived and the crowd in attendance and viewers around the world felt swindled.
5 5. Kyle Wethey Gets Disqualified for Crapping his Pants
There have been several stories of MMA fighters evacuating their bowels during a fight. Poop is a fact of life, but Kyle Wethey pooped so much he ended up being disqualified.
During the first round of his first professional fight, Wethey was kneed which caused him to go in his pants.
Wethey decided that he was going to take this opportunity and use it. Several times Wethey trapped his opponents head between his legs, trying to submit an opponent with smell.
After the first round, the fight was called off and it took 10 minutes to clean the canvas.
4 4. Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs Battle it Out in the Hospital
After an unspectacular fight between Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs at UFC 57, both fighters ended up in the hospital. After this incident, the UFC should send their fighters to different hospitals.
According to Riggs, Diaz was trash-talking, which would surprise absolutely nobody, when he threw a punch at 'Diesel' in the hospital. Then the brawl ended up with Riggs feeding Diaz knees before some security guards broke them up.
Diaz perspective was pretty much the same though in his retelling of the story he ended up punching the hell out of Riggs.
This is after almost getting into a fight in the hotel before the fight and having a stare down in the bathroom.
3 3. War Machine Assaults Girlfriend Christy Mack
Nobody was going to say War Machine was a good person, after multiple arrests for assault, and then we all bore witness to what he did to Christy Mack.
Mack, War Machine’s sometimes girlfriend, was nearly beaten to death by the professional fighter who weighed upwards of 60 pounds more than the petite adult entertainer.
War Machine believed Mack was cheating on him one night and barged in. He then mercilessly beat her and threatened her until she eventually escaped and fled for help.
Mack had a ruptured liver, 18 broken bones, several missing teeth and fractured ribs.
2 2. Jarrod Wyatt Rips Out Sparring Partner’s Heart
Jarrod Wyatt was an MMA fighter from northern California and it was unlikely he was ever going to become a success but he will forever be remembered for the gruesome murder of his sparring partner.
Wyatt was on hallucinogenic drugs with sparring partner Taylor Powell, when they thought they were in a fight between good and evil. According to court documents, Wyatt removed Powell's heart, tongue and the skin of his face while he was still alive.
Wyatt would eventually take a plea deal that has him serving a prison sentence of 50 years to life in prison. There is the possibility of parole in 2062.
1 1. Lee Murray: Criminal Mastermind
Lee ‘Lightning’ Murray was destined to be little more than a blip in MMA history, that was until he pulled off one of the biggest bank heists in history.
One night in February 2006, Murray and several accomplices posed as police and pulled over a worker at a local cash depot in London. After taking the man, Colin Dixon, hostage they also got a hold of his family and held them hostage.
Then Murray and his accomplices, one who worked at the cash depot, had Dixon take them to the place he worked. After Dixon informed several employees not to press the alarms for the safety of his family, Murray and his fellow robbers took an amount of money equal to $100 million.
Murray would later be arrested in Morocco and sentenced to 25 years in prison.