The sports world is a gold mine for ironic nicknames. Baseball alone had "Tiny" Bonham who stood on the mound at a menacing 6-foot-2. It also had "Fats" Berger, who only weighed a trim 170 pounds.

The owner of perhaps the most ironic nickname kicking around MMA these days is Justin "Tank" Scoggins. To get to the bottom of the reason a lean flyweight has such an imposing nickname, FloCombat's Top Turtle MMA chatted with Scoggins about it.

At only 4 or 5 years old, Scoggins started watching some old UFC events. Instantly, he took a liking to the UFC's original bad boy.

"I used to watch the UFCs when I was really little, and my favorite fighter was always Tank Abbott," Scoggins recalled. "So I would try to emulate him in class."

While Scoggins' style may not be similar to the former beer-chugging heavyweight, he used to try out plenty of those skills back in his youth.

"We'd get our sparring gear on and we'd go to spar," Scoggins said. "I would run over kids, throwing huge haymakers, going for big slam takedowns and stuff."

With all of the parents watching the karate sparring, many of those who knew MMA started to draw the comparison. And Scoggins was none too upset about it.

"Everyone was like, 'Man, he really does fight like Tank,'" he said. "So, it stuck. It's been my nickname since I was 4 or 5 years old."

Even though Abbott is sometimes jeered by modern MMA fans for his archaic style, Scoggins maintains the fanhood of his namesake. He even defends said skills and invites fans to check out some of the original Tank's fights.

"People don't realize, if you go back and watch Tank Abbott's early fights, he was sick," Scoggins said. "He transitioned from his striking to his wrestling really good. The dude was just never in shape, but if you watch some of the stuff he did, his transitions were sick!"

Regardless of his love for the sport, don't expect Scoggins' physique to begin resembling his nickname. He credits his wife, 4-1 amateur MMA prospect Hannah Scoggins, for keeping him in line with weight.

"[My wife] helps me with my diet and stuff," he said. "She keeps me on track, so I don't get too chunky in the offseason."

For more on his nickname, training with his wife, and his time training at Alpha Male, listen to the whole interview below.