Mark Coleman: Biography and sporting achievements

Professional wrestler from the United States Mark Coleman, biography and photos which will be presented in this article, and won, and lost many times. Once he was champion in the first NCAA Division as well as member of the US Olympic team to fight without rules. But the greatest fame he achieved by acting organization MMA. And among the participants of the first UFC, he received the title of champion in the heavy weight category. Mark for the incredible fighting techniques was given the nickname "the Hammer." In 2008, Coleman was elected the fifth member of the UFC Hall of Fame.

Brief biography athlete

Mark Coleman, whose biography we now consider in detail, was born December 20, 1964 in Fremont, Ohio. He became interested in wrestling even in adolescence.

Higher Education Mark decided to get into the University of Miami, which is located in Ohio. During his training in this institution, he twice won the title Mid-American Conference. During the last year in the university, Mark managed to become the champion of the most prestigious division NCAA.

After university, Coleman joined the US national team. There he continued his wrestling. In 1991, in the city of Varna hosted the World Cup, in which Mark Coleman was involved. He reached the final, but in the last battle lost to first place the Soviet fighter Leary Habelovu. In 1992, Marc became a member of the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Here he managed to take seventh place.

Participation in the UFC

Make Debut in MMA organization took place in 1996 at UFC 10. As previously Coleman trained hard and got a lot of experience in wrestling, he won the tournament. Such favorites as Gary Goodridge and Don Frye, could not resist the great strength of Mark. Most people think that Coleman was the first member of MMA, who successfully started a battle tactics called Ground-and-Pound, which is so popular today. The athlete never liked to waste time. In almost all the battles he was trying to get ahead in the beginning and wanted to throw his opponent to the floor. At UFC 11, Mark Coleman became the champion of mixed martial arts. And on the next tournament he won with the help of a strangulation over UFC legend Dan Severn.

After that, Mark was defeated in three matches. He lost to former kickboxer Maurice Smith, Pete Williams and Brazilian Pedro Rizzo. His career in the UFC ended in 1999.

The fights in PRIDE

Immediately after UFC Mark Coleman began performing in the Japanese promotion called PRIDE. His first fight he lost, but further career was successful. In 2000, the tournament was held Pride Grand Prix, where Hammer defeated such notable fighters as Masaaki Satake, Akira Shoji, Kazuyuki Fujita and Igor Vovchanchin. It was the pinnacle of his career. After that, the athlete is no longer up to the Olympus organization PRIDE. After all, we came a young and versatile trained fighters. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko and Mirko Filipovic was dismissed early almost invincible Mark on the back burner.

The most memorable moment in Coleman's career came in 2005. On promotion PRIDE 31 Mark Coleman met with Brazilian fighter Mauricio Rua of the Chute Boxe team. At the very beginning of the fight with Roy Hammer knocked the legs than dealt him a heavy hand injury. But Mark did not stop and continued to hit out. The referee failed to stop the fight. We jumped into the ring members Chute Boxe, who were trying to protect Roy, as well as judges, guards, managers and doctors. After an athlete apologized to the Brazilian team. But members of Chute Boxe not accepted them. After this incident, Mark's career began to slowly fade away.

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And again in the UFC

Fighter Mark Coleman is not going to stop there. He returned at UFC 93 tournament Hammer once again stepped into the ring against Roy and made his debut in the light heavyweight category. The battle lasted quite sluggish. Both fighters were not in the best shape. As a result, Roy was the victor. After the fight, Coleman long protested against this decision. After all, he was still on his feet but the referee stopped the fight.

One of these fights make can be called historic. In the ring, the two met Hall of Famer UFC - Randy Couture and Coleman. The latter won. After that Hammer fired from the UFC, as he lost six out of ten battles. When Mark was forty-eight years, he has made an official statement that ends the career of a fighter.