Don Frye (wrestler)

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Don Frye 1996 ufc10.jpg

Don Frye (born November 23, 1965 ) is a retired American mixed martial arts fighter , wrestler and actor . His MMA match record at the end of his career amounted to 20 wins, eight defeats, one draw and one fight without evaluation. In addition, he played some roles in films and series. Frye's nickname was The Predator .

Life

Don Frye began at his high school in Arizona with the rings and led this sport at Arizona State University on, where he was assisted coach Dan Severn trained, and later at Oklahoma State University . He was also active as a judoka and boxer . After graduating from university, he started working as a firefighter.

In 1995, Frye became the training partner of his former coach, MMA fighter Dan Severn. This ensured that Frye could take part in an event of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in February 1996 . At this tournament in Puerto Rico he beat Thomas Ramirez in his first MMA fight after eight seconds and then defeated Sam Adkins by TKO after 48 seconds. In the final he then forced Gary Goodridge to give up. He also won his next fight in the UFC , against Amaury Bitetti in May, through TKO.

In July 1996 the UFC 10 was another tournament. Frye defeated Mark Hall by TKO and forced Brian Johnston to surrender, but then suffered his first defeat in the final against Mark Coleman by TKO after eleven and a half minutes. In November he faced Mark Hall again, this time at the Japanese event U - Japan , and defeated him again. In December he took part in the UFC Ultimate Ultimate 1996 tournament. There Gary Goodridge had to give up in Frye's first fight due to exhaustion. In the second fight, as a substitute for Kimo Leopoldo , Mark Hall faced him again, who gave up after 20 seconds. Hall and Frye were looked after by the same manager at the time and Hall was later to testify that he had been promised a part of the Fryes winners' exchange if he gave up quickly and Frye could save his energy for the final. Frye said he had no knowledge of it. In the final, Frye faced Tank Abbott and after a short standing exchange of blows, Frye was able to get him to give up on the ground.

After that, Don Frye turned his back on MMA for a few years and became a wrestler in New Japan Pro-Wrestling . He returned to the MMA ring in June 1997 only for one victorious fight against Eric Valdez. But in 2001 he signed with Pride FC . In his comeback fight in September, he faced kickboxer Gilbert Yvel , who was disqualified. In December he defeated Cyril Abidi in the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event . In February 2002 he went back to Pride and won against Ken Shamrock on points. Frye had his next fight in June against the Japanese wrestling star Yoshihiro Takayama , whom he defeated by TKO.

Don Frye then competed against Jérôme Le Banner in a match under kickboxing rules . Inexperienced in this fighting style, Frye was knocked out by LeBanner. After that he had to accept his defeats in Pride FC : In November 2002 he was defeated by Judoka Hidehiko Yoshida . He also lost his revenge match against Coleman in June 2003 and in December he was knocked out after 39 seconds by Goodridge, whom he had previously defeated twice.

Frye then fought a few fights for K-1 and one fight for King Of The Cage . In April 2007 he returned to Pride and lost to James Thompson. After a few more fights at smaller MMA organizers until September 2009, he retired from martial arts.

Don Frye has also been in front of the film camera since 2004. He made his film debut in the Japanese monster film Godzilla: Final Wars .

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Jeremy Wall: UFC's Ultimate Warriors: The Top 10. ECW PRESS, 2005, ISBN 1-55022-691-6 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Don Frye in the Sherdog database (English)
  3. ↑ Don Frye in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  4. ↑ fiveouncesofpain.com - Don Frye: Couture vs. Coleman will be like grizzly bear sex, a lot of scratching and growling
personal data
SURNAME Frye, Don
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mixed martial arts fighter and wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1965