Ken Shamrock's 6 best UFC fights

#4: vs. Brian Johnston, Ultimate Ultimate II, December 7th, 1996

Shamrock destroyed Brian Johnston in his final UFC appearance before his WWF career

The premise behind 1996’s ‘Ultimate Ultimate’ tournament was a simple one – the UFC put together a tournament containing eight of the best fighters from the previous UFC shows – the likes of Ken Shamrock, Don Frye, Tank Abbott and Kimo Leopoldo – in order to find the ‘Ultimate Champion’.

Shamrock came into the tournament as a man on a mission as he’d lost his UFC Superfight title to Dan Severn in one of the worst fights in promotional history seven months prior, and at this stage, he looked more intimidating than ever, as he was readying up for his move to the WWF.

His opponent in the first round of the tournament was Brian Johnston, a tough kickboxer whose only UFC losses had come at the hands of Don Frye and Mark Coleman, but in the Frye fight, in particular, he’d been competitive. This should’ve been a tough fight for Ken, but he made it look anything but.

Shamrock took Johnston down early with a powerful takedown and from there he simply destroyed the kickboxer with strikes from the top, forcing him to tap out once Shamrock switched to using headbutts after around 5 minutes.

It was a seriously violent showing that suggested Ken could win the tournament – but unfortunately, he broke his hand during the beatdown and had to withdraw. It was the last fight Shamrock would have in the UFC for six years.