Kevin Randleman: Remembering The Monster | FIGHTLAND
The MMA world awakes this morning to the tragic news that former UFC heavyweight champion and PRIDE veteran, Kevin Randleman has passed away at just forty-four years old. Randleman might not be remembered by many of the fans who found MMA in the last decade but those who saw him at his peak will always remember his feats of athleticism in the ring and those who had a chance to speak with him or hear him at seminars will always remember him for the thoughtful, introspective man who shone through from underneath the muscled, almost superhuman exterior.
The same few conversations come up again and again when you hang out with fight fanatics. Who would win from
x and
y? Who is the greatest of all time? Who was the most significant wasted talent in MMA? When the last one comes up my answer has always been Kevin Randleman. Of course, Randleman won the UFC heavyweight title, that's a pretty significant accomplishment for a wasted talent. But had a physical talent like Randleman come along at a time when serious boxing and Muay Thai coaches understood the MMA game, and been taught how to work in the transitional areas which only exist in MMA, and been with a team who could teach him strategy and build him gameplans, he could run through most of the men at his weight and above even today.
The kind of guy who could pin you to the mat with both feet off of the floor and knee you in the head while he was doing it.
Instead, Randleman spent much of his career under Mark Coleman's Hammer House banner, a team whose gym fellow alumni
Phil Baroni confirmed a while ago never actually existed outside of a heavy bag on Coleman's porch. Consequently Randleman never really rounded out his game and suffered a lot of submissions from inside his opponent's guard which a wrestler of his ability training at a top level MMA gym today would be able to shut down.
