It’s been a difficult week for UFC legend Mark Coleman.
On Tuesday morning, the former heavyweight champion was awakened by his dog around 4 a.m. only to discover that his childhood home was engulfed in flames. Acting quickly, ‘The Hammer’ carried both of his parents to safety, but suffered from smoke inhalation after trying to save his beloved pet. Coleman was airlifted to a local hospital where he remained in a coma before regaining consciousness on Thursday.
Coleman’s recount of the horrifying details while embracing his two daughters — Morgan and Kenzie — was an undeniably emotional and inspiring moment that quickly went viral.
Further updates from the Coleman family appeared to show the MMA legend well on his way to recovery. So much so that ‘The Hammer’ was released from the hospital on Friday. However, Coleman’s oldest daughter revealed that they were forced to return to the facility roughly an hour after arriving home as Coleman began experiencing numbness in his arms and pain in his chest.
“Daily update. Kenzie here,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “Hi everyone. It’s been a worldwind of a week. Yesterday my dad was released from st vincents in Toledo where they thought he was stable enough to go home. We were only home for about an hour in Columbus when he started to have numbness in his arms and chest pain. Of course my sister and I rushed him back to the hospital where we found out he has now developed pneumonia.
“Despite all of this he is still his same positive, spunky, spitfire self just as you can imagine from the video above. He wants to again thank you all for the support and love you have shown him and us during this extremely difficult time. I have read him so many of your guys comments and he is so overwhelmed with joy. He is getting rest and i promise to take the best care of him.
“He is the true definition of a fighter and defines strength like no other. Sometimes i even think he’s a super human. He loves you all so much. He always says without his supporters he’s nothing. It feels good to be home with my daddy. Please continue to pray for his healing and health during this recovery process. Hammer house 4 life.”
Mark Coleman’s MMA Legacy has stood the test of time
Mark Coleman is best known for being the first-ever UFC heavyweight world champion, defeating Dan ‘The Beast’ Severn to claim the title after winning back-to-back tournaments at UFC 10 and UFC 11. ‘The Hammer’ went on to compete against a slew of top-shelf talent in both PRIDE FC and the UFC, including Don Frye, Fedor Emelianenko, Mirko Cro Cop, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, and ‘Shogun’ Rua.
In February 2010, Coleman competed in the first UFC fight pitting two Hall of Famers against one another when he met Randy Couture at UFC 109.
A GoFundMe campaign established to help Coleman and his daughters with living expenses and mounting medical bills has already blasted past its initial $50,000 goal and is nearing $120,000 with over 2,500 donations. If you’d like to donate to the cause, you can do so right here.
