Save Your Outrage: Coleman & Others Don’t Need Your Tears
Posted by Alan Conceicao on January 18th, 2009
One thing that was brought up regularly in the post fight talk of UFC 93 is how awful Mark Coleman looked. Sam Caplan was but a single (and the most coherent) voice among many who has written in the last 24 hours about his wish to see Mark Coleman retire. That, sadly, is not going to be part of the reality for Coleman, just as it is not for so many other competitors from the “dark ages” of the sport. After all, who in their right mind believed Coleman had anything left going in except those easily bought by well edited video pieces?
Over the last twelve months (and longer for some), a disturbing number of MMA competitors who were major names in the earlier days of the sport have fought on while bloggers begged for their retirement:
Gary Goodridge: Back in December, it seemed everyone had a piece like this on their website. After years of getting pounded, someone put two and two together and noticed that Gary Goodridge was losing (and often KOed) ten times to every win he had over the last couple of years. Goodridge had competed in PRIDE and the UFC during their infancy and had fought for K-1 both as an MMA and kickboxing competitor for much of the last 4 years. In recent years, the 40+ year old Goodridge has become a punching bag for younger, more skilled opposition.
Don Frye: Frye’s loss to Minowa exemplified his physical breakdown, in part aided by his admitted abuse of pain killers.
Kazushi Sakuraba: Do we even really need to review this? Sakuraba turns 40 this year and he’s never looked worse than his last two fights with Tamura and Manhoef. People have been begging for Saku to retire since the third Silva fight.
Ken Shamrock: Shamrock’s loss to Buzz Berry was a brutal one. The Kimbo debacle only could have damaged him more. Now the news that he’s fighting on February 13th against Bo Cantrell comes almost as no surprise. To everyone’s credit, this is better than the rumored February bout against Tim Sylvia.
Jeremy Horn: Prior to this fight, people had begun to notice that Horn has not looked so hot recently. He’d lost 4 of his last 6 and one of those was extremely close. Again, like Coleman, he put up a good fight at times, but seemingly no one wants to talk about how Horn lost all but 1:30 of the 15:00 fight. Horn doesn’t belong at the UFC level and realistically, he needs to fight guys at an appreciably lower level to be successful again.
Kevin Randleman: Once he was UFC Heavyweight Champion. Once he was the #2 contender to the PRIDE middleweight title. Today, after a coma and some negative piss tests, Randleman is a shell hoping to get his card pulled by Sengoku or DREAM. Randleman is now no longer a kid at Hammer House, he is instead a 38 year old man near the end of his career. After losing 7 of 9 at the end of his PRIDE run, Randleman was off due to medical problems, including a coma due to a kidney infection, Randleman returned to Sengoku’s ring and put forth a horrible performance against Ryo Kawamura. He’s still looking in desperation to get his ticket punched again.
That is merely a short list of names, mind you. There are many, many more: Phil Baroni, Bryan Pardoe, Ron Waterman, Kazuo Takahashi, and many others have fought well past their sell buy date. Not a single one of those men have truly indicated that they are looking to retire soon. Coleman expects to fight on for years, for instance. How could we have so easily ended up with a “lost generation” of fighters?
The answer is obvious: Money. Even those who made a good chunk of it like Shamrock and Sakuraba probably spent it, or at the very least would like more of it while its out there. Others on that list like Randleman, Coleman, et al never made a big pay day. Jeremy Horn’s biggest payday in the UFC made him a $70,000 before taxes and management/trainers cuts. It sounds like a lot, but Horn’s previous runs in the UFC hardly made him rich. The loss to Liddell was only worth $25,000 guaranteed. As Joe Rogan was once proud to point out, so much of his experience came in fights where he made no more than $100 a round, if anything at all. Those free fights have taken a toll on his body, and now Horn needs desperately for his gym to make him money in the middle of a deep recessive climate in the midwest. Those just less than superstar fighters often didn’t have fantastic insurance to all the trips to the ER that they’ve made over their life, for the rehabs they’ve needed to endure, for the MRIs and CT scans and all the medication they needed to operate another day in the sport. They often did have children and wives to support, and losing them often was worse financially than them being around. Goodridge’s retirement fight several years ago was quickly followed up with a return to action when his wife filed for divorce.
The sad and unfortunate truth is that none of these fighters I’ve listed are going to disappear anytime soon of their own volition. It seems infinitely more likely that some of them will be removed from the sport due to complications from years of painkiller and steroid abuse rather than a grand ride into the sunset. Tears need not be shed now, outrage should equally be kept at bay. You’ve seen nothing yet, and more than likely, we’ll be the ones watching while it happens.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Great article. We can only hope it does not foretell future tragedy. We only hope the regulatory commissions, if not the promoters, take seriously the health of some of these competitors over their financial stability and prevent the possibility of an… unchosen end to a career.
Garp
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January 18th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
VERY nice piece, Alan.
It’ll be interesting to see if yesterday’s co-FOTN bonus was a farewell gift to Coleman or if Dana & the boys actually plan on using him further in the future. Because, if it’s the latter, I believe they’ll be REALLY courting disaster.
Whether it’s at 205 where he’s obviously weight drained & will soak up plenty of accumulative punishment from much quicker opponents. Or, at heavyweight where he’ll be on the recieving end of the big bombs from today’s giants.
In either case, it’s clear as day that he doesn’t belong anywhere near UFC caliber talent & that any further mixing with them will likely lay waste to whatever he has left of his physical well being.
About the only way that I could see him eeking out a living in the fight game for a couple more years is if he swallowed his pride & agreed to go on the tank town/barnstorming circuit like Dan Severn has been doing for years now. Taking on the lower echelon local lads & the occasional journeyman-types like your Travis Fultons & Shannon Ritchs for a couple-three grand a night.
Unfortunately, due to the size of his ego & his lack of any defensive skills whatsoever, I don’t really see that being an option for Coleman. Though I haven’t actually seen any recent video of Severn lately, judging by how often he’s fought, I have to believe that the man knows how to protect himself & come out of his matches fairly injury free.
A skill set I don’t see in Coleman.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I’ve seen a lot of Dan Severn over the last 3 years. The last fight I remember seeing of him was against Wade Hamilton, and I seriously question its legitimacy. Having fights like that will definitely help you last a lot longer in this sport.
I think Severn is more comfortable with losing and getting a paycheck than Coleman too. Mark kept going as hard as he could the entire fight Saturday. Having seen Severn fight numerous times recently, my expectation is that he would have dropped earlier in the fight and taken less damage.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
[...] as part of their USA Today contribution) was one of general laughter. Its a bit of a far cry from the reaction to Gary Goodridge and Mark Coleman’s fights that took place earlier in 2009. Perhaps even [...]