MMA fans who enjoy seeing legends in their 50s fight one another will be pleased to know that Mark Coleman is currently lobbying for a fight with Don Frye.
The 53-year-old Coleman hasn’t fought since UFC 109. He lost to Randy Couture that night in a fight billed as the first-ever UFC Hall-of-Famer versus UFC Hall-of-Famer bout. As for Frye, the 52-year-old hasn’t fought in 6 years. He suffered a 1st round knockout loss to Ruben Villareal on a Gladiator Challenge show from December 11th, 2011.
Coleman recently took to Twitter to challenge Frye, though the former UFC Heavyweight Champion admits neither fighter is in their prime.
U know what @DonFryeFighter we're both a bit beat up. So it's even. I know how bad u want to fight we're not in our prime,I respect u but fk let's fight! I miss it u miss it.Old school no rules.I can take u down and I am the GODFATHER OF GNP. Head but the shit out of you! U there https://t.co/a0VJKcj2ds
— Mark Coleman (@HammerHouseMMA) May 1, 2018
Mark Coleman versus Don Frye I & II
The first fight between Frye and Coleman took place in the finals of the UFC 10 tournament. Frye defeated Mark Hall and then Brian Johnston to advance to the finals. Coleman was making his professional MMA debut that night and had already defeated Moti Horenstein and Gary Goodridge en route to the finals. At 11:34 into the fight, Coleman was able to score the TKO victory over Frye to win the tournament and get his MMA career off to a perfect start.
Frye and Coleman would meet again nearly 7 years later in Pride. Coleman’s career in Pride got off to something of an auspicious start. He dropped what is widely believed to have been a fixed fight against promotion co-founder, Nobuhiko Takada. Following the loss to Takada, Coleman rattled off six straight wins. He then lost to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in his last fight before his rematch with Frye, however. As for his opponent, Frye was also coming into Pride 26 having lost his last fight. Prior to that, however, he had won 9 straight dating all the way back to his last loss to Coleman from UFC 10 in 1996. The rematch between Frye and Coleman would result in a unanimous decision victory for Coleman.
