Top 5 Insults to Injury in MMA

Paul Daley's sucker punch to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113 wasn't the first time a fighter has pulled a cheap shot in MMA.

And It's happened in years past as well.

Emotions can get the best of fighters and cloud their judgment, which means they don't realize when they're doing something that could screw themselves over later.

In five infamous moments lie some of the most despicable insults to injury that the sport has ever seen.

Need a refresher course?

Take your seats, folks. Cheap Shots 101 is now in session.

Just a quick "skim of the syllabus" before we begin, though. There are some held-for-too-long submissions involved in this piece. They count as cheap shots, too.

So, let's get started.

(And just so we're clear, I haven't found a spot for Daley's cheap shot on the list, so it's not going in there—not yet anyway).

Honorable Mention: How to Strike a Nerve Without Winning the Belt

The Shooter: Brock Lesnar

The Scene of the crime: Las Vegas, Nevada; UFC 100

The Victim count: 10,871 in the Mandalay Bay Events Center, plus millions at home.

The Targets: Frank Mir, Bud Light, and basically any kid that hadn't seen their first bikini-clad woman yet.

How it went down: Lesnar beat Mir by posting him up against the cage and raining down with some blows, but after he got the win and Mir was being attended to, Lesnar got in Mir's face, nearly sparking a brawl in the UFC.

It didn't stop there.

When Joe Rogan interviewed Lesnar after the fight, Lesnar not only claimed to have pulled the "horseshoe" out of Mir's ass, but he also said he was going to drink a Coors because Bud Light wasn't paying him anything, and he even hinted at getting his Ron Jeremy on with his wife.

That's right WWE fans, Sable's married to Lesnar.

Consequences: None really, other than an apology for the rant from Lesnar.

Still, it just give people to wonder why B/R even allows an MMA section to exist.

Not that it matters, because we were just going to put out kickass news and opinions anyway.

5. And iT iS All Over!! Gilbert Yvel KOs...Yeah, That Guy—the Ref

Gilbert Yvel doesn't play well with others.

He bit an opponent and got disqualified for it before he even went to PRIDE.

He eye-gouged Don Frye in PRIDE.

Worst of all—or maybe most indifferent of all, depending on if you really like the referees or not—is the fact that Yvel struck a ref and kicked him on the ground.

Yvel was facing Atte Backman in a November 2004 fight—roughly five months before PRIDE's Bushido 6 event, and all the ref was trying to reset both fighters in a clinch.

I guess Yvel didn't want a clinch fight with Backman, because he tried going into a neutral corner and coming out like they were going to stand.

He also swatted the ref away a few times.

Still, dude, you don't deck a ref. It's just not cool.

4. You Kiss My Face, and I'll Make You Kiss the F**king Canvas

Number four on the list goes to the "New Year's Eve Kiss" in the Yoshihiro Nakao-Heath Herring fight at K-1's Dynamite event in 2005.

It's a cheap shot on both Herring and Nakao's end.

Cheap on Herring's end because he got too pissed off over the kiss and scored himself a knockout punch before the ref ever finished the pre-fight rules.

Cheap on Nakao's end because...well, let me put it this way:

YOU find me a rulebook for MMA, YOU find its table of contents, and YOU show me the page that says that it's perfectly fine to kiss your opponent on the lips.

3. Babalu Teaches Heath

It was UFC 74, and Renato Sobral was facing David Heath.

The fight went two rounds before Babalu sunk in an Anaconda Choke that cause Heath to tap out.

Heath tapped, but Babalu didn't let go of the hold.

Babalu knew that Heath tapped but he claimed that he hung on to it to teach Heath respect.

Long story short, after the event wrapped up, Dana White taught Babalu how to not let the door him him on the ass on the way out.

2. Hackney likes Son's nuts

Technically, it wasn't a cheap shot when Keith Hackney pounded Joe Son in his "area" because the rules allowed for it to be legal.

Still, who hits a guy in the balls repeatedly?

I'm sorry, I know that it was legal, but I recognize this a a cheap shot.

Never hit a guy in the junk, period. Man Law.

1. Mayhem's Masterful Timing

Does it surprise you that the Strikeforce Nashville melee is at the top of this list?

If it does, then you probably don't know what happened.

Basically, Jake Shields beat Dan Henderson in four of the five rounds they endured at Strikeforce: Nashville, and he was being interviewed by Gus Johnson.

Jason Miller, who had beaten Tim Stout earlier that night in a preliminary bout, moseyed right into the cage as Jake was addressing the Hendo fight.

Jake knew Mayhem was going to ask for a rematch, right before he asked "Where's my rematch, buddy?"

The end result: a brawl between Mayhem, his camp and members of Team Cesar Gracie.

To make a long story short, everyone involved got fined except Nate Diaz, and the sport catches a bad reputation once again.

Now look where Shields is.

Gilbert Melendez and Nick Diaz got their fines and suspensions, but Melendez still wants Eddie Alvarez, and when Nick Diaz fights next, he'll be coming off of his win over Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.

As for Miller...well, Dana, let me say it like this: if you do get Miller back to the UFC and if you do get the Shields-at-welterweight deal in dried ink, just make sure Mayhem never goes back down to welterweight.