MARK COLEMAN

'Mark "The Hammer" Coleman' (born December 20, 1964) is an American mixed martial arts competitor, former NCAA National Champion Wrestler from Ohio State University, and former Olympic amateur wrestler. Coleman is credited with proving the ability of wrestlers to dominate in the developing sport of mixed martial arts, and with being the inventor of the strategy that came to be known as "ground and pound".^[1]
Coleman began his career freestyle wrestling, going on to win a NCAA wrestling championship, and competing 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'' where he beat defending champion and fellow superstar, Don Frye and ''UFC 11'' in 1996, and becoming the UFC's first Heavyweight Champion when he submitted Dan Severn via neck crank at UFC 12. Coleman lost his title to Maurice Smith, was knocked out by Pete Williams, and lost a decision to Pedro Rizzo in his last UFC fight.
From 2000 through 2006, Coleman resurrected his career with PRIDE Fighting Championships in Japan, while also making appearances with the professional wrestling promotion HUSTLE in Japan. He won the Pride 2000 open-weight Grand Prix tournament defeating Masaaki Satake, Akira Shoji, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Igor Vovchanchyn. Coleman was once again at the top of the mixed-martial arts world. He continued to thrive the next 5 years facing top flight competition and maintaining his reputation as on of the toughest heavyweights in the world. He appeared with teammate, Kevin Randleman, on the US PPV broadcast of the final Pride event, Kamikaze, stating that he intended to keep fighting, even though many have said that his career is winding down and he should retire.
More recently, in July of 2007, in an interview with MMAWeekly.com, Coleman stated his intentions to return to fight at least one more time in The Ultimate Fighting Championships. He believes that even though he is 4-4 in his last 8 matches, he has more fight in him, and he even goes as far as to state that he would match up well against current UFC Heavyweight Champion, Randy Couture. Mark Coleman 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, U.S. in 1964. He began freestyle wrestling as a teenager, and wrestled 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, Coleman made his professional MMA debut at ''UFC 10: The Tournament''. With his solid wrestling background and substantial 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 created weight classes and championships. The very first Heavyweight Championship fight took place at UFC 12, between Mark Coleman and Dan Severn. Causing an upset, 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 (regulation plus two overtimes) 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 exhausted after 10 minutes, even resting his hands on his knees during the fight. Taking advantage of Coleman's fatigue, Williams landed a heavy 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, in a fight widely speculated, but never confirmed, to have been a worked fight to build Takada's reputation as a legitimate fighter.
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, who had fought his two opponents for over 25 minutes, 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 jumped into the ropes and was slingshot back into the ring while running out of the ring to celebrate with fans.
After a quick TKO victory from knees to the head over Allan Goes at PRIDE 13, Coleman faced possibly his toughest challenge ever in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at PRIDE 16. "Minotauro" 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, this proved to be a much tougher battle. Coming back from a career threatening neck injury, Coleman ultimately won a unanimous decision victory after 20 minutes. Following the fight, Coleman apologised to the fans for the lack of action during the fight which he had spent the majority of taking down and maintaining positional dominace of Frye with his superior wrestling ability.
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 in the Open Weight Division. 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.
Coleman returned to the Pride ring in February 2005, 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 with a victory over 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 awkwardly and broke his arm. 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 act towards "Shogun" offended the Chute Boxe team members outside the ring, including the former 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, after which, 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] The Chute Boxe team was assigned a yellow card for instigating this infraction.
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 swelling around the eyes.

Personal life

Coleman has two daughters.

Other

He appeared in the movie as one of the main characters alongside Mark Kerr.

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

References

1. "Mark Coleman has got such a long list of wrestling titles, but it's when he stepped into mixed martial arts that he really 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 coining the term 'ground and pound,'" referring to his ability to takedown and then punch, elbow, and knee his way to victory. (Stephen Quadros, PRIDE 16, 2001).

★ IFL announces 4 new coaches by IFL.tv, June 3, 2006

★ Sherdog.com report on Hammerouse/Chute Boxe feud

External links

★ TeamHammerHouse.com

★ Sherdog.com

★ Mark Coleman at wrestlinghalloffame.org

★ IMDB entry for Smashing Machine -- 2002 HBO Documentary profiling Mark Kerr.

This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.

psst.. try this: add to faves

	Golf Holidays International
	Green Parrot Beach Houses Resort
	Century 21 Beltair Associates
	Dancing Moon Travel

	MC Voyages
	Authentik Canada
	Sears Travel
	Entrance Travel
	Century 21 Beltair Associates
	Vision 2000 Travel Group, Vancouver
	Hotel Valley Ho (Cafe ZuZu, VH Spa)
	Scottsdale CVB
	Travelonly - Dave Corless
	Heavenly Paradise Getaways

MARK COLEMAN

Biography

Amateur wrestling

Mixed martial arts

UFC

PRIDE Fighting Championships

Personal life

Other

Record

Championships and accomplishments

Amateur wrestling

Mixed martial arts

References

External links

Photo Galleries »

Customer Service

Most Popular

Useful

Find