MMA Fighter Bios: MARK COLEMAN

MARK COLEMAN

BORN: Fremont, Ohio

6’0, heavyweight

Being considered as the originator of the ground and pound technique, superb wrestler Mark Coleman would be one of the most terrifying and effective fighters in the second half of the ‘90s. At Ohio State University Coleman won an NCAA championship and placed seventh overall in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

The transition from amateur wrestling to MMA was a seamless one for Coleman and he would jump into the sport and win the UFC 10 tournament in 1996, after dispatching of Moti Horenstein, Gary Goodridge and Don Frye. He would compete at UFC 11 later that year and win that tourney as well as well by impressively taking out Julian Sanchez and Brian Johnston. All of a sudden Mark Coleman was the most dominant fighter in the world. His ability to take down opponents and pound them from there was evolving the game. He was pioneering the ground and pound technique where a solid wrestler could plant his opponent on their back and land effective strikes while defending submission attempts.

Coleman would go on to become the UFC’s first heavyweight champion when he tapped out Dan Severn via neck crank at UFC 12 the following year. Coleman was riding high until a string of 3 losses saw him leave the UFC and enter into the Pride FC organization.

After a an initial loss in the organization to Nobuhiko Takada in 1999, Coleman turned it up a notch and racked up 6 straight wins. He was back in fantastic form and showed a renewed intensity in wanting to let everyone know he was the number one heavyweight in the world. In vintage Coleman fashion, the American won the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix tournament by defeating Masaaki Satake, Akira Shoji, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Igor Vovchanchyn. He was overjoyed and back in the upper echelon in the heavyweight class.

Coleman would be fighting around the 500 mark, mixing up wins and losses, but still held wins over Mauricio Rua after a dislocated elbow forced a TKO stoppage and Stephan Bonnar. He also defeated Don Frye in Pride, but was not able to solve the problems top fighters such as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko, and Mirko Filipovic posed.

Aside from competing, Coleman has given back to the MMA world by training fighters at his Team Hammer House. Training competitors such as Kevin Randleman, Wes Sims, and Phil Baroni.

At UFC 82, Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. While there have been numerous accolades associated with the prowess Randy Couture has shown into his 40s, Mark Coleman has also been able to come accomplish some history well into his fourth decade of existence. His defeat of Stephan Bonnar at UFC 100 allowed Coleman to showcase his classic and effective ground and pound, and at age 44, became the oldest fighter to ever win a match in the UFC. He took over the mark which was held by Couture.

TITLES

UFC 10 champion

UFC 11 champion

First UFC heavyweight champ

PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Champion

UFC Hall of Fame inductee

WRESTLING PEDIGREE

1988 NCAA National Wrestling Champion for Ohio State

1992 US Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team member

WIN BREAKDOWN

50% via submissions (including 3 submissions from strikes)

25% via TKO

25% via Decision

LOSS BREAKDOWN

45% by Submission

33% by TKO/KO

22% by Decision