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Mark "The Hammer" Coleman (born December 20, 1964) is an American mixed martial arts fighter. He is also famous for his amateur wrestling career. He currently fights in PRIDE events as well as events with the Professional Wrestling promotion HUSTLE. He is also the founder of Team Hammer House.

Biography

Amatuer 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, where he was a two time Mid-American Conference wrestling champion. In his senior year, he transfered to Ohio State University and won an NCAA championship. * 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 devistating 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 sucessfully 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 mismached 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.

After nearly eight months of recuperation and training, Coleman returned at UFC 19 to face feared Brazillian striker Pedro Rizzo. After 15:00 the fight went to the judges, who called it for Rizzo.

Pride FC

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. In a fight that many critics and fans suspect to be a "work-up" (A practice that PRIDE FC admitted to in early events), Coleman lost to Takada by Heel Hook. The fight would be Takada's one and only win 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 recieved 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 seperate 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 barley 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, the referee called a stop to the bout due to strikes, and Coleman became the first ever Pride Grand Prix Champion. In his joyious 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 choke 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 CroCop at PRIDE 29: Fists of Fire. Suffering the second brutal knockout of his career, Coleman fell to strikes by CroCop 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. But at just 0:49 of the first round, Rua suffered a freak accident landing from the takedown at an odd angle, violently breaking his arm at the elbow. Not seeing the vicious break, Coleman continued to fight, peppering Rua with a few strikes before the referee stopped the fight. Still unaware of the injury sustained by Rua, Coleman began celebrating his victory, nearly in the face of Shogun's brother Maurilo Rua, who was rushing to his brother's aid. This seemingly agressive act twords Maurilo 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, Wanderlei fell to the ground, where Coleman landed an apparent foot stomp, as Baroni battled with other Chute Boxe members. After the ring was cleared and order was restored, both camps vowed to settle the score at a future event. *

Currently, Mark Coleman trains fighters at Team Hammer House, and has been announced as one of the new coaches in the International Fight League, helming the an as of yet unnamed team.* Coleman's team is first scheduled to compete in the next 8-team tournament in the IFL, which is slated to begin in September 2006.

Titles

Amateur

  • World wrestling championship freestyle 100 kg 2nd place in 1991
  • Barcelona Olympic Games wrestling freestyle 100 kg class 7th place in 1992

Professional

  • UFC 10 & 11 Tournament Champion
  • UFC Heavyweight Champion (first)
  • PRIDE GP 2000 tournament champion

Record

Date Outcome Opponent Method Event Round, time Notes 2/26/2006 Win Mauricio Rua TKO (Dislocated Elbow) PRIDE 31 Dreamers (Unbreakable in the USA) Round 1 0:49 10/9/2005 Win Milco Voorn Submission (Choke) Bushido Europe-Rotterdam Rumble Round 1 0:56 2/20/2005 Loss Mirko Filipovic KO (Punches) PRIDE 29 Fists Of Fire Round 1 3:40 4/25/2004 Loss Fedor Emelianenko Submission (Armbar) PRIDE Total Elimination 2004 Round 1 2:11 6/8/2003 Win Don Frye Decision (Unanimous) PRIDE 26 Bad to the Bone Round 3 5:00 9/24/2001 Loss Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Submission (Triangle/Armbar) PRIDE 16 Beasts From The East Round 1 6:10 3/25/2000 Win Allan Goes TKO (Knees) PRIDE 13 Collision Course Round 1 1:19 5/1/2000 Win Igor Vovchanchyn Submission (Strikes) PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals Round 2 3:09 Won PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Championship 5/1/2000 Win Kazuyuki Fujita TKO (Corner Stoppage) PRIDE Grand Prix 2000-Finals Round 1 0:02 5/1/2000 Win Akira Shoji Decision PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Finals Round 1 15:00 1/30/2000 Win Masaaki Satake Submission (Neck Crank) PRIDE Grand Prix 2000 Opening Round Round 1 1:14 10/21/1999 Win Ricardo Morais Decision PRIDE 8 Round 2 10:00 4/29/1999 Loss Nobuhiko Takada Submission (Heel Hook) PRIDE 5 Round 2 1:44 1/8/1999 Loss Pedro Rizzo Decision UFC 18 Road to the Heavyweight Title Round 1 15:00 5/15/1998 Loss Pete Williams KO (Kick to the Head) UFC 17 Redemption Round 1 12:38 7/27/1997 Loss Maurice Smith Decision UFC 14 Showdown Round 1 21:00 2/7/1997 Win Dan Severn Submission (Choke) UFC 12 Judgement Day Round 1 2:57 Won first ever UFC Heavyweight Championship title 9/20/1996 Win Brian Johnston Submission (Strikes) UFC 11 The Proving Ground Round 1 2:20 9/20/1996 Win Julian Sanchez Submission (Choke) UFC 11 The Proving Ground Round 1 0:45 7/12/1996 Win Don Frye TKO (Strikes) UFC 10 -The Tournament Round 1 11:34 7/12/1996 Win Gary Goodridge Submission (Position) UFC 10 The Tournament Round 1 7:00 7/12/1996 Win Moti Horenstein Submission (Strikes) UFC 10 The Tournament Round 1 2:43

References

See also

External links

1964 births | Living people | American mixed martial artists

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Mark Coleman".

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