As the Pride Fighting Championships Openweight Grand Prix kicked off at the beginning of 2000, Mark Coleman was not only an afterthought in the bracket but perhaps the first example in the sport’s short history of a washed-up fighter. The “Godfather of Ground-and-Pound,” who had won the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title just three years before, had exited that organization on the heels of three straight losses, including a savage face-kick knockout by Pete Williams that still crops up on UFC highlight reels.
When Coleman arrived in Pride and promptly lost his debut to Nobuhiko Takada in one of the most egregious fixed fights of all-time at Pride 5, most of the public’s remaining faith in him evaporated.