47 Facts About Mark Coleman

Mark Daniel Coleman was born on December 20,1964 and is an American retired mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and amateur wrestler.

At UFC 82 Mark Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Mark Coleman began freestyle wrestling as a teenager and in 1981 was the first state champion wrestler for Saint Joseph Central Catholic High School.

Mark Coleman then finished second in his sophomore year before claiming his second state championship in 1983.

Mark Coleman continued to wrestle for Miami University, in Ohio, where he was a two-time Mid-American Conference wrestling champion and earned his first All-American honors in 1986.

Mark Coleman participated 1996 Olympic Trials, but self-claimed lack of focus on wrestling hindered his performance, resulting in a loss in the semifinals.

Mark Coleman won his first two tournaments in dominating fashion, including a win over UFC 8 champion Don Frye at UFC 10 in 1996, and becoming the first UFC Heavyweight Champion after submitting UFC Superfight Champion Dan Severn via neck crank submission at UFC 12.

Mark Coleman made his first UFC Heavyweight Championship title defense at UFC 14, facing kickboxer Maurice Smith.

In what turned out to be a long battle, Mark Coleman lost a decision after 21:00.

Mark Coleman took nearly a year off after having to get ACL surgery and returned at UFC 17.

Mark Coleman was scheduled to face Randy Couture in a title match for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, but Couture was injured during training and was forced to pull out of the fight.

Mark Coleman instead faced a relatively unknown last-minute replacement fighter, up and coming Lion's Den product Pete Williams.

In what turned out to be another long and strenuous battle, Mark Coleman appeared to be completely exhausted after 10 minutes; he was fatigued to the point of resting his hands on his knees during the fight.

The decision was controversial, with many and Mark Coleman himself believing he did enough to win.

At Pride 5, Mark Coleman fought Nobuhiko Takada, who would become HUSTLE's owner and booker.

Mark Coleman won the Pride 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix tournament defeating Masaaki Satake, Akira Shoji, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Igor Vovchanchyn.

Mark 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.

Mark 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.

Mark Coleman returned to competition to take place in the Pride 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix, as the returning Grand Prix champion in the Open Weight Division.

In what turned out to be a short bout, Mark Coleman was submitted by armbar at 2:11 of the first round, eliminating him from the tournament.

Mark Coleman returned to the Pride ring in February 2005, this time facing Mirko Cro Cop at Pride 29: Fists of Fire.

In November 2005, Mark Coleman appeared in Bushido Europe-Rotterdam Rumble, Europe's first Bushido event, and choked out Milco Voorn at 0:56 of the first round.

At 0:49 of the first round, Rua got up and as he took the first step Mark Coleman grabbed his feet.

Mark Coleman then started peppering Rua with strikes before the referee stopped the fight.

Backstage in his post-fight interview, Mark Coleman stated that the whole melee happened in the heat of the moment and that he did not blame the Chute Boxe team for coming in and backing their fighter.

Mark Coleman then added that similar to Chute Boxe, Hammer House is like a family, and thanked Baroni for coming in and watching his back.

Mark Coleman's contract was fought out at this point, and he subsequently re-signed with the organization.

On October 21,2006, Mark Coleman again faced Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko at Pride's first American show, Pride 32: The Real Deal, and lost via submission at 1:17 of round two.

Mark Coleman appeared with teammate, Kevin Randleman, on the US pay-per-view broadcast of the final Pride event, Pride 34: Kamikaze, stating that he intended to keep fighting.

At UFC 82, Mark Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, making him the 5th inductee.

However, Mark Coleman injured his knee while training, and was forced to pull out of the event.

At UFC 109, Mark Coleman faced fellow UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, after originally being scheduled to meet at UFC 17 in 1998 twelve years prior, in which an injury forced Couture to drop out of the fight.

Mark Coleman went on record, multiple times during the build-up for the fight, in which he claimed this was his dream bout.

Mark Coleman would appear for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, defeating Nagata in a singles match.

In 2002, Mark Coleman would appear in All Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestle-1 project, teaming up with Kevin Randleman to face Hiroshi Hase and Satoshi Kojima in a losing effort, and later Jan the Giant Convict and Singh the Giant Convict in a victory, with Mark Coleman himself pinning Singh with a hurricanrana.

In 2004, Mark Coleman started wrestling for Hustle and its partner promotion Pro Wrestling Zero-One.

Mark Coleman debuted in the first as part of Generalissimo Takada's villainous faction Monster Army, going against babyface Toshiaki Kawada in a singles match which Mark lost by TKO.

Mark Coleman continued teaming up with other Monster Army wrestlers, including Dan Bobish, Commander An Jo and Giant Silva, but he was kicked out of the stable after failing to defeat top face Naoya Ogawa, thus becoming a babyface himself.

Mark Coleman then went free and ended up joining Wataru Sakata's team after losing a bout to him.

Two years later, Mark Coleman returned to Hustle under the masked persona "Mark Coleman", teaming up with the superhero-like team of Randleman, Kintaman and Kurodaman.

From 2008 to 2010, Mark Coleman was a usual member of Inoki Genome Federation, wrestling names like Naoya Ogawa, Tadao Yasuda and Shinichi Suzukawa.

Mark Coleman has two daughters, Mackenzie and Morgan, from his previous marriage.

Mark Coleman has a third daughter, Skylar, with his current partner Tina.

Mark Coleman appeared in the documentary The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Mark Kerr alongside fellow fighter and former friend Mark Kerr.

In June 2006, it was announced that Mark Coleman was one of the new coaches in the International Fight League.

In 2020, Mark Coleman revealed that he was one of the victims of Dr Richard Strauss regarding the Ohio State University abuse scandal.

In late 2020, Mark Coleman reported that he suffered a heart attack due to a complete artery blockage, and underwent a surgery to have a stent installed.