In the modern-day UFC, the heaviest a fighter can weigh going into a bout is 266lb - but it wasn't always that way.
Back when MMA began, there were very few weight classes, if any, and fighters were allowed, like boxing heavyweights, to tip the scale at whatever weight they pleased. It led to some giants competing, and perhaps none were as big as the 600lb behemoth Emmanuel Yarborough from New Jersey, who fought three times in various promotions.
The sport, called 'Ultimate Fighting' at the time was initially put together to find out which fighting style was most effective, drafting in karate, jiu-jitsu, boxing, wrestling and other martial arts experts. They would compete in one-night tournaments on pay-per-view, with BJJ practitioners such as Royce Gracie often coming out on top in the early days.
But one of the sport's biggest personalities in the early days was 600lb sumo wrestler Yarborough. Standing at 6'8", the American started as a football player in college, where he gained the ironic nickname 'Tiny' among teammates, and also wrestled at NCAA Division II level; the same as where the likes of Kamaru Usman competed in university.
After getting into sumo wrestling and becoming an amateur champion, Yarborough decided to get into MMA, competing three times including the third UFC event ever and a fight in Pride in Japan. For his first opponent, he drew 'The Giant Killer' Keith Hackney, who weighed in at 200lb, or less than a third of his rival's 616lb weight.
That result didn't go his way, with Hackney landing the TKO finish in the first round before moving on to have a 2-2 professional record with his next three fights. Yarborough's talents and appeal were niche in his home country, but things began to change when he went to Japan, where fans loved giants of the ring and cage.
He defeated Tatsuaki Nakano by smothering him within a minute-and-a-half of the first, before moving into Pride, which at the time was arguably bigger than the UFC. For the first time, the American was brought into a second round, before being stopped by Daiju Takase,
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After his MMA career fizzled out, the giant fighter struggled to remain relevant in the professional wrestling and acting worlds, while his weight ballooned to over 800lb as he dealt with a severe food addiction. He was able to lose around 200lb after a heart scare in 2007, but passed away at the age of 51 after never getting his weight fully under control.
Interestingly, MMA would end up implementing a weight limit at heavyweight, which would prohibit someone like Yarborough from competing. The current champion Francis Ngannou weighed in at 257lb last time around, and he couldn't tip the scales any higher than 265lb.
The likes of Greg Hardy and Chris Barnett have missed that weight before, and Hardy just competed at 320lb in his second boxing outing. But the days of the UFC allowing massive 600lb monsters to compete are long gone, and the American's legacy is in tact as the promotion's biggest ever fighter.
