Coleman ready for his ‘biggest fight ever’ against fellow HOFer Couture

Feb 4, 2010 | by MattE | No Comments

By Matt Erickson
cagedin.mma@gmail.com

When UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman came out of retirement to fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, he took his share of criticism and had plenty of doubters because of his age.

When the fight, won by Rua with a late TKO ref stoppage, turned out to be one that fans and analysts wound up calling one of the worst of 2009 because of the sluggishness of both fighters, the questioning continued.

But Coleman’s next fight, at the historic UFC 100 card in July against Stephan Bonnar, turned things around for him. He surprised the experts and outmuscled Bonnar to a unanimous decision win. Things were looking up, and the UFC threw another tough test at him – Tito Ortiz, making his return from a long layoff.

But a knee injury forced him out of the Ortiz fight and Coleman wondered if he’d ever get another shot like that one. But Saturday, he’s got that shot and then some against fellow Hall of Famer Randy Couture in the main event of UFC 109.

“This is by far the biggest fight of my life,” Coleman said on a media call last week. “I’ve been in some big fights, but none of them compare to this. Personally, there’s a lot on the line here for me – just by far the biggest fight ever, and I appreciate Randy giving me this opportunity and accepting the fight.”

It will be the first time two Hall of Famers meet in the UFC Octagon, and Coleman is a sizable underdog to Couture’s -500 odds at most sportsbooks. It’s a status Coleman said he understands.

“Well, it’s just kind of what I deserve,” Coleman said. “I guess I deserve to be the underdog with my performance in the past. I haven’t always been able to give 100 percent to the sport. I’ve had other things I’ve had to focus on, or I’ve decided to focus on other things. But for the Bonnar fight, I was able to get away from Ohio and put a nice little training camp together. And actually, Randy was nice enough to let me train at his gym – and I had some great coaches there and some great assistants. If I’m able to put a good camp together and I come in in shape, I pose a threat just about anybody out there.”

It’s interesting how Coleman and Couture have continued to cross paths here and there through their long careers. This won’t even be the first time they’ve faced each other. In 1989, they met in an amateur wrestling match, which Coleman won.
“I remember the match pretty clearly,” Couture said. “It was just following my freshman year at the Olympic festival that they held in Stillwater (Okla.) Mark and I wrestled in the finals of a mini tournament in freestyle, and Mark was firing on all cylinders in his wrestling career at that time and he beat me. He was hard headed – you know, came out and got in my face, and it was a great match.”

And even though Coleman won the match, he said it was a ding to the chin he’ll be looking to return the favor for on Saturday.

“We were banging pretty hard with each other,” Coleman recalled. “He brought it to me, and at the time, you know, I was giving it back – a good, very close match. I remember him being very strong and kind of like he fights. He was in my face the whole time. Actually, he gave me an accidental head butt during the match and I ended up having to get two stitches underneath my chin after the match. So maybe I owe him a little head butt during this one here.”

Already about as accomplished as he can be in the sport, Coleman said being able to fight Couture, especially after having to pull out of his fight with Ortiz in November, is not lost on him.

“I’m very grateful, very honored,” Coleman said. “It was very devastating when I did have to pull out against Tito because that’s an opportunity that you can never get back, and I felt like I really lost out on a huge opportunity and I didn’t foresee being able to top that matchup and I anticipated probably fighting a younger guy and maybe becoming a gatekeeper or something like that. When I (found out) it was going to be Randy Couture, I was a little in shock for a little bit. I knew the magnitude of that fight and I was just really, really happy and surprised because I didn’t think I was going to be able to top a Tito Ortiz matchup. I do feel a little bit lucky to be able to face a Randy Couture because he is, in my opinion, one of the greatest of all time in this sport. So it’s about as big as it gets for me.”

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» Tagged: #top, mark coleman, randy couture, UFC, ufc 109

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