Fight Archives: Emmanuel Yarbrough wins by ‘smother’

Ah yes, the good old days of non-existent weight classes.

When the Gracie family introduced no holds barred fighting to the rest of the world in the early ’90s, one of their goals was to prove that proper technique trumps size, strength, and power. Their main man Royce successfully achieved that at UFC 1, while also giving a strong marketing push to their beloved martial art then known as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Then came Manny Yarbrough. This 6’7”, 600-pound behemoth of a man pretty much defied all odds in terms of how big and heavy you can get to compete in the sport. If we’re talking about sheer mass, no other heavyweight came close to rivalling him.

Yarbrough had no other choice but to face much smaller opponents. For his second professional fight at Shoot XX in April ‘98 in Japan, he was matched up against local professional wrestler Tatsuo Nakano. Yarbrough entered the contest with a whopping 400-pound weight advantage.

I won’t even try to break the action down and instead just let you all watch it in awe/disbelief/laughter/whichever applicable emotion. If you were rooting for Yarbrough, this was a happy ending for you. But if you’re Nakano, what an experience it must’ve been.

“Tiny” Manny went on to compete two months later in PRIDE 3. And judging by how the action went down, it looked like opponent Daiju Takase did his homework well.

Emmanuel Yarbrough is probably one of the very few fighters in history who holds a win by “smother” on his official record. Rest in power, legend!