Mark Coleman
Mark "The Hammer" Coleman (born December 20, 1964) is an American mixed martial arts fighter and former olympic amateur wrestler. Coleman is credited with proving the ability of wrestlers in the developing sport of mixed martial arts, and with being the first to exhibit the strategy that came to be known as "ground and pound."[1]
Coleman began his career freestyle wrestling, and would go on to win a NCAA wrestling championship, and compete in the 1992 Summer Olympics, taking seventh place overall. Following his amateur career, Coleman made the transition to the then-new sport of mixed martial arts, winning his first two tournaments, UFC 10 and UFC 11 in 1996, and becoming the UFC's first ever Heavyweight Champion.
Currently, Coleman fights for PRIDE Fighting Championships in Japan, while also making appearances with the professional wrestling promotion HUSTLE in Japan. He is also the founder of Team Hammer House, a mixed martial arts team and training facility in Columbus, Ohio.
Biography
Amateur wrestling
Mark Coleman was born in Fremont, Ohio, USA in 1964. He began freestyle wrestling as a teenager, and would go on to wrestle for Miami University, in Ohio, where he was a two time Mid-American Conference wrestling champion. In his senior year, he transferred to Ohio State University and won an NCAA championship.[1] Out of college, Coleman was awarded a spot on the US Wrestling team, and took 7th place in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. Coleman continued to wrestle as an amateur, even defeating freestyle wrestling Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle at a tournament in 1995.
Mixed Martial Arts
UFC
In July 1996, Mark Coleman made his professional MMA debut at UFC 10: The Tournament. With his solid wrestling background and devastating power, Coleman won the tournament by defeating fan favorites Gary Goodridge and Don Frye in the same night. Many believe Coleman was the first MMA fighter to successfully use the now popular "ground-and-pound" technique. Coleman was also known to waste no time in the beginning of fights, and would nearly always rush in and attempt an immediate takedown.
Coleman returned at UFC 11, and won his first two fights in less than 3 minutes total. After his opponent in the finals was injured, an alternate named Scott Ferrozzo, Coleman was declared UFC 11 Champion.
With the UFC steering away from tournament style events, and gaining criticism for their often mismatched fights, the organization decided to create weight classes and championships. The very first Heavyweight Championship fight took place at UFC 12, between Mark Coleman and Dan Severn. Shocking fans, Coleman choked out the UFC legend in a mere 2:47, becoming the first UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Coleman made his first title defense at UFC 14, facing the former kickboxer Maurice Smith. In what turned out to be a long battle, Coleman lost a decision after 21:00 to Smith. Realizing his stamina was not able to sustain fighting for so long, Coleman took nearly a year off and returned at UFC 17, facing up and coming Lion's Den fighter Pete Williams. In what turned out to be another long and strenuous battle, Coleman appeared to be completely gassed after 10 minutes, even resting his hands on his knees during the fight. Taking advantage of Coleman's fatigue, Williams landed a devastating kick to the face, knocking Mark Coleman out for the first time in his career.
After nearly eight months of recuperation and training, Coleman returned at UFC 18 to face feared Brazilian striker Pedro Rizzo. After 15:00 the fight went to the judges, who called it for Rizzo.
PRIDE Fighting Championships
In 1999 the up and coming Japanese MMA promotion PRIDE Fighting Championships signed Coleman to fight at PRIDE 5, facing popular Japanese pro wrestler Nobuhiko Takada. Coleman lost to Takada by Heel Hook. The fight would be one of Takada's 2 wins in his 7 MMA fights.
Coleman returned to Japan in November of 1999 at PRIDE 8, taking on Ricardo Morais. After two ten minute rounds, Coleman received the decision victory, breaking his losing streak, and taking his first win in more than two and a half years.
In early 2000, Pride FC announced a Grand Prix tournament to take place over two separate events. In the first round, Coleman took on Japanese fighter Masaaki Satake, winning quickly by neck crank. Four months later, at the PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals(also the first PRIDE event available on pay per view in the USA) Coleman faced Akira Shoji in the quarterfinals, winning by decision. Later that same night in the semifinals, Coleman won a quick TKO at 0:02 of the first round by corner stoppage over Kazuyuki Fujita, who was injured and could barely stand from his first fight of the night. With Coleman rested after not having to fight his second fight, he faced Igor Vovchanchyn in the final match. At 3:09 of the second round, Igor tapped out due to knee strikes to the head, and Coleman became the first ever Pride Grand Prix Champion. In his joyous celebration after winning the title, Coleman actually fell off of the top rope while running out of the ring to celebrate with fans.
After a quick TKO victory over Allan Goes at PRIDE 13, Coleman faced possibly his toughest challenge ever in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at PRIDE 16. The "Submission Magician" was able to catch Coleman in a triangle/armbar at 6:10 of the first round, breaking Coleman's six fight winning streak.
Coleman would take nearly two years off following the fight with Nogueira, Spending time with his wife and children, and focusing on developing his martial arts training facility and stable of fighters at Team Hammer House. Training such fighters as Kevin Randleman, Wes Sims, and Phil Baroni, Team Hammer House quickly gained a reputation of turning out world class fighters.
Coleman returned to MMA competition at PRIDE 26 to face Don Frye in a rematch of their meeting at UFC 10. In what proved to be a much tougher battle, Coleman ultimately won a unanimous decision victory after 20 minutes of action.
Between training fighters and spending time with his family, Coleman was now fighting roughly once a year. He returned to competition to take place in the Pride 2004 Heavyweight Tournament, as the returning Grand Prix Champion. His first round match up at PRIDE Total Elimination 2004 was against feared Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko. In what turned out to be a short bout, Coleman was submitted by armbar at 2:11 of the first round, eliminating him from the tournament.
February of 2005 saw Coleman return to the Pride ring, this time facing Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović at PRIDE 29: Fists of Fire. Suffering the second brutal knockout of his career, Coleman fell to strikes by Cro Cop in the first round. In November of 2005, Coleman appeared in Bushido Europe-Rotterdam Rumble, Europe's first Bushido event, and choked out Milco Voorn at just 0:56 of the first round.
Coleman returned to action at PRIDE 31 to face Chute Boxe team member Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. With Team Hammer House member Phil Baroni in his corner, Coleman began the match by taking Shogun to the ground. At 0:49 of the first round, Rua got up and as he took the first step Coleman grabbed his feet. Rua fell and broke his arm at a disturbingly unnatural angle. Not seeing the injury, Coleman continued to fight, peppering Rua with strikes before the referee stopped the fight, though not before Coleman threw the ref away and began to shout violently at Murilo Rua, Mauricio's brother, who entered the ring following the injury. This seemingly aggressive act towards Mauricio set off Chute Boxe members outside the ring, including current Pride Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva, who jumped into the ring, and began struggling with cornerman Phil Baroni. In the ensuing melee, Baroni landed several shots on Silva before taking Silva to the ground, where Coleman then stomped on Silva's throat. Still unaware of the injury sustained by Rua, Coleman and Baroni began celebrating. After the ring was cleared and order was restored, both camps vowed to settle the score at a future event. [2] Coleman later apologised to Chute Boxe backstage, but an outraged Chute Boxe refused to accept.[3]
Currently, Coleman trains fighters at Team Hammer House, and continues to fight roughly once a year. In June 2006, it was announced that Coleman was one of the new coaches in the International Fight League, but unable to assemble a team, he was replaced by Frank Shamrock.
On October 21 2006, Coleman faced Pride Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko for the second time at PRIDE's first ever American show, PRIDE 32: The Real Deal. [4]and lost via submission (armbar) at 1:17 of round two. Emelianenko threw heavy punches at Coleman, who sustained brutal cuts and massive swelling around the eyes.
Record
Championships and accomplishments
Amateur Wrestling
- NCAA Champion
- FILA World Freestyle Wrestling championship 100kg 2nd place (1991)
- Barcelona Olympic Games fresstyle wrestling 100 kg class 7th place
Mixed Martial Arts
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References
- ^ "Mark Coleman has got just such a long list of wrestling titles, but it's when he stepped into mixed martial arts that he really started to proved the dominance of wrestlers who can go into the guard and strike or take you down and strike. He is the man responsible for the term 'ground and pound.'" (Stephen Quadros, PRIDE 16, 2001).
- IFL announces 4 new coaches by IFL.tv, June 3, 2006
- Sherdog.com report on Hammerouse/Chute Boxe feud
See also
External links
- TeamHammerHouse.com
- Sherdog.com
- Mark Coleman at wrestlinghalloffame.org
- IMDB entry for Smashing Machine -- 2002 HBO Documentary profiling Mark Kerr.