Mark Coleman

Who is Mark Coleman?

Mark Daniel Coleman is a retired American mixed martial artist, professional wrestler, former NCAA collegiate wrestler and former Olympic amateur wrestler. Known as The Hammer, he 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.At the age of retirement he was taking 150,000 USD salary per year.

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 successfully use the strategy that came to be known as ground-and-pound, earning him the distinction as "The Godfather of Ground & Pound".