Don Frye

Who is Don Frye?

Donald "Don" Frye is an American former mixed martial artist, amateur and professional wrestler and actor. After taking up wrestling in high school, Frye went on to wrestle collegiately at Arizona State University and Oklahoma State University–Stillwater during the 1980s and also trained in boxing, debuting professionally in 1989. He would then leave the combat sport scene for a number of years, working as a emergency medical technician and firefighter, before turning to the fledgling sport of MMA in 1996. With his background in boxing and wrestling, as well as judo, he was one of the sport's earliest well-rounded fighters and he had instant success, winning the UFC 8 and Ultimate Ultimate 96 tournaments and finishing as runner-up UFC 10 in his first year of competition. Despite his accomplishments, he retired from MMA in 1997 to pursue a career in professional wrestling with New Japan Pro Wrestling and quickly became one of the company's leading heels. After spending four years as one of Japan's top gaijin wrestlers, Frye returned to MMA with the Pride Fighting Championships in September 2001, much more muscle-bound and sporting an American patriot persona in response to the September 11 attacks. After developing a reputation for toughness and fighting spirit, mostly due to his legendary bouts with Ken Shamrock and Yoshihiro Takayama during his two year stint in Pride, Frye departed the promotion to compete in K-1 and Hero's in 2004 but returned for the final Pride event in 2007.