Марк Коулман: Күрес пен жарыс өнерінің шебері

American wrestler and mixed martial artist
the Irish hurler

Mark Coleman (born December 20, 1964) is an American retired mixed martial artist, professional wrestler and amateur wrestler. Coleman was the UFC 10 and UFC 11 tournament champion, the first UFC Heavyweight Champion, and the Pride Fighting Championships 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix champion. At UFC 82 Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Coleman is credited with proving the ability of wrestlers to dominate in the developing sport of mixed martial arts, and with being one of the first in American MMA to use the strategy that he coined ground and pound successfully, earning him the moniker, "The Godfather of Ground & Pound". In the sport of wrestling, Coleman was a World Championship runner up and Pan American Games Gold medalist in 1991, won three Pan American Championships, competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics and was an NCAA Division I National Champion for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He 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. In his senior year, he transferred to The Ohio State University and won an NCAA championship in 1988. Out of college, he started as an assistant coach at his alma mater. Additionally, he was awarded a spot on the US Wrestling team, placing second (100 kg) at the 1991 FILA Wrestling World Championships in Varna, Bulgaria, and placing seventh overall in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He participated 1996 Olympic Trials, but self claimed lack of focus on wrestling hindered his performance, resulting in a loss in the semifinals. In what turned out to be a long battle, Coleman lost a decision after 21:00 (regulation plus two overtimes). This was considered to be one of the largest upsets in UFC history at that time, largely because of the way Coleman had dominated his opponents in his previous fights. Coleman took nearly a year off after having to get ACL surgery and returned at UFC 17. Coleman was originally 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. Coleman instead faced a relatively unknown (at that time) last minute replacement fighter, up and coming Lion's Den product Pete Williams. In what turned out to be another long and strenuous battle, 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. Williams took advantage of Coleman's fatigue and landed a heavy kick to the face, knocking 'The Hammer' out for the first time in his career. After his loss to Pete Williams, Coleman went to train with former UFC champion Ken Shamrock and his Lion's Den training camp for his upcoming bout with feared Brazilian striker Pedro Rizzo at UFC 18. The fight with Rizzo was part of the "Road to the Heavyweight Title", which was a four man tournament between Coleman, Rizzo, Bas Rutten and Tsuyoshi Kosaka that would crown the next UFC Heavyweight Champion. After 15:00 the fight went to the judges, and they awarded a split decision win to Rizzo. The decision was controversial, with many and Coleman himself believing he did enough to win. In a recent interview, Coleman said he still feels the effects of the controversial decision loss to Rizzo. In response to questions about the fight's legitimacy, Coleman said, "It was what it was. I needed to support my family. They guaranteed me another fight after that and I needed that security. It was what it was. I'm going to leave it at that." Coleman won the Pride 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix tournament defeating Masaaki Satake, Akira Shoji, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Igor Vovchanchyn. The final was scheduled to be fought with a 20 minute time limit but according to Coleman, the day before the fight the rules were changed to no time limit. The change forced him to modify his game plan to attempt a quick finish as he did not believe he could put Vovchanchyn away with his ground and pound in a long match. An outraged Chute Boxe refused to accept Coleman's backstage apology. The Chute Boxe team was assigned a yellow card for instigating this infraction. Coleman's contract was fought out at this point, and he subsequently re signed with the organization. and lost via submission (armbar) 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. Coleman announced that he was not retiring and would return to the octagon to fight Brock Lesnar on August 9 in Minneapolis at UFC 87. However, Coleman injured his knee while training, and was forced to pull out of the event. Heath Herring replaced Coleman for the fight. At UFC 109, 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. Coleman went on record, multiple times during the build up for the fight, in which he claimed this was his dream bout. After being outboxed on the feet, Coleman was taken down and defeated shortly after by (Rear Naked Choke) at 1:09 in round 2. The bout marked the first time two UFC Hall of Fame inductees had fought. Following Coleman's loss to Couture in the main event of UFC 109, his sixth loss in his last 10 fights, he was released by the promotion.

After going over three years without competing Coleman announced via Facebook that he has officially retired from MMA competition at 48 years of age.

After Coleman saved his parents from a burning house in March 2024, fighter Max Holloway suggested that Coleman be the one to present the symbolic "BMF" ("baddest motherfucker") belt to the winner of the title fight at UFC 300 on April 13, 2024. This request was granted and Coleman ended up wrapping the belt around Holloway, who was victorious in his bout against Justin Gaethje.

In December 2000, Coleman had his first professional wrestling match when he was invited to the event Inoki Bom Ba Ye 2000, teaming up with Mark Kerr to defeat Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Nagata. He would also appear for New Japan Pro Wrestling, defeating Nagata in a singles match. In 2002, 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 Coleman himself pinning Singh with a hurricanrana.

In 2004, Coleman started wrestling for Hustle and its partner promotion Pro Wrestling Zero One. He 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. 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. Coleman then went free and ended up joining Wataru Sakata's team after losing a bout to him. Coleman and Sakata were successful as a tag team, but it was dissolved after Coleman left the promotion in 2005. Two years later, Coleman returned to Hustle under the masked persona "Coleman", teaming up with the superhero like team of Randleman, Kintaman and Kurodaman. Their biggest victory was when Coleman and Randleman faced the trio of Giant Vabo, Kohei Sato and Tajiri and won the match despite the numeric disadvantage. Mark's last match in Hustle was in July 2007, leaving the promotion again afterwards. From 2008 to 2010, Coleman was a usual member of Inoki Genome Federation, wrestling names like Naoya Ogawa, Tadao Yasuda and Shinichi Suzukawa.

Coleman has two daughters, Mackenzie and Morgan, from his previous marriage. Coleman has a third daughter, Skylar, with his current partner Tina. He 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 Coleman was one of the new coaches in the International Fight League. However his team, the Columbus Razorclaws, were unable to get off the ground, and he was replaced as a coach by Frank Shamrock the following month. In 2018, Coleman revealed that he was one of the victims of Richard Strauss regarding the Ohio State University abuse scandal. In late 2020, Coleman reported that he suffered a heart attack due to a complete artery blockage, and underwent a surgery to have a stent installed. In an interview with Ariel Helwani in September 2021, Coleman revealed that Wes Sims persuaded him to participate in rehab due to a drinking problem. In the interview Coleman stated that multiple personal life issues contributed to the situation and also that he's been sober since the rehab. In March 2024, a house fire began at Coleman's parents' home in Toledo, Ohio. Coleman retrieved his parents, but his dog did not survive the fire. Coleman was hospitalized and put in critical condition due to smoke inhalation.