Mark Coleman: the Story of a UFC Pioneer

When it comes to MMA pioneers, Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman is a name that may not be readily recognizable by younger fans.  Nonetheless, his impact on the sport is undeniable. The winner of UFC 10 and UFC 11 tournaments, and the first UFC Heavyweight champion, Coleman is also known as ‘The Godfather of Ground-and-Pound’ – a nickname which gives credit to his propensity of taking down his opponents and beating them up on the ground, a technique that you can see exhibited in virtually every MMA event today.

As an accomplished collegiate and amateur wrestler, Mark Coleman was also very influential in showing that wrestling is an excellent base for MMA, a statement which holds true to this day.  Coleman’s wrestling accomplishments include multiple NCCA and Pan-American championships, and placing seventh in the 1992 Summer Olympics. “I choked” – is how Mark Coleman describes his Olympic experience to Betway. Of course Coleman had inspirations of bringing home a gold medal, and he also tried out for the 1996 Olympics – but was defeated by Kurt Angle and did not qualify for Team USA.

After this disappointing performance he was offered a slot to participate in UFC 10, which Mark immediately accepted.  The rest is MMA history. Coleman went on to stop Moti Horenstein, Gary Goodridge, and Don Frye in the single night tournament. He then also won the UFC 11 tournament, and submitted Dan Severn for the inaugural UFC Heavyweight title, before a streak of losses which saw him leaving the UFC and going to Japan to compete for Pride FC. Coleman lost his Pride debut, then went on to win six consecutive fights before running into Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira – arguably the top HW in the world at the time.

Coleman’s Pride stint also included losing to HW luminaries such as Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko CroCop. He wrapped up his MMA career back where he started in the UFC, but dropping down to light heavyweight division as the smallish heavyweight could no longer wrangle the monsters at 265 lbs. He took his last professional fight at the age of 46, and was submitted in the second round by then 48-year old Randy Couture. Coleman was released from UFC following this loss, and retired from MMA as his body could no longer keep up with the athletes of the day after all the injuries accumulated through the decades of wrestling and mixed martial arts.

Coleman’s was once ranked as high as #2 HW in the world, and retired with a respectable ranking of #20 LHW.  He sits at #13 in our All-Time Heavyweight Rankings,  and holds an overall record of 7-5 in the UFC, going 1-1 in title matches. His legacy as one of the pioneers in the early style-vs-style era of MMA will not be forgotten.