UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman Hospitalized with Hip Complications

One would think after having a UFC Hall of Fame career that Mark “The Hammer” Coleman should be living in the lap of luxury. But that’s not the case at all.

According to a GoFundMe page set up by Wes Sims titled “Save The Hammer,” Coleman is dealing with some major medical complications.

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Mark had a hip replacement in 2013 and after surgery was named Wrestling Coach for Team Penn on Season 19 The Ultimate Fighter. After filming and returning home his hip popped out several times and pain began on the other side. He has struggled and lived with the pain for well over a year and became sick a couple weeks ago. He was taken to hospital where a doctor checked him out and had to stay for four days on antibiotics, when released he went to see hip doctor again and scheduled to have surgery on March 9th, only to discover while open on operating table he was full of infection and very close to being septic and lucky to have caught this!

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Per the GoFundMe page, Coleman remains "hospitalized with a plastic hip" until a full surgery can be done in April. The page expresses that Coleman has no income and that his insurance is about to run out. Coleman’s financial troubles are nothing new. The UFC Hall of Famer put his Pride Grand Prix tournament trophy up for bidding on eBay last year.

It’s sad to see someone who had such a storied career in this position.

Prior to the Zuffa days of the UFC, Coleman became a certified monster inside the cage. He entered the UFC after winning a NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship at Ohio State University and a seventh-place finish at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Coleman dominated the competition at both UFC 10 and UFC 11, winning back-to-back UFC tournaments. Included in those tournament bouts were wins over early MMA stalwarts Gary Goodridge and Don Frye.

At UFC 12 Coleman would become the first-ever UFC heavyweight champion after tapping out Dan “The Beast” Severn in under three minutes.

It's this run fans of Coleman point to when mentioning him as “The Godfather of Ground-and-Pound.” Coleman’s UFC success wouldn’t last much longer, however, and he dropped three consecutive fights inside the Octagon.

Although he exited the UFC on bad terms, Coleman rebounded greatly by winning the Pride Grand Prix tournament in 2000. Finding mixed success, Coleman did battle with some of MMA’s legendary icons like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

His Pride 31 victory over Rua presented MMA fans with a quality memory as two rival camps nearly entered an all-out brawl following the fight.

Coleman’s MMA career came full circle as the legend wrapped it up for the same company he began with. He would only find one victory in his second UFC tenure but did take part in a rematch with Rua and the first-ever UFC Hall of Famer vs. UFC Hall of Famer bout in UFC history with his UFC 109 clash against Randy Couture.

As many MMA fans know, few fighters break into the MMA game to make it rich. This is even more true for guys who competed prior to Zuffa running the show or “the dark ages” of the UFC as some will call it.

There have been a flood of donations in only a matter of hours, including from former Pride announcer Mauro Ranallo. Let’s all hope this MMA legend can get back to just having the ability to live a normal life after the hours of torment Coleman endured in the cage and gym to provide entertainment for us fans.

Get well soon, Hammer.