Mark Coleman has been scrapping his entire life.
So the first UFC heavyweight champion's mental approach to his recent setbacks should surprise no one who has followed his career.
"I'm just taking this like a fight," Coleman said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour. "I gotta fight through this."
It's a battle he's fighting with a little help from his friends. The 50-year-old Coleman, considered the man who pioneered ground-and-pound during the sport's early days, is locked in a battle with an infection, which set in after hip replacement surgery. And while this saga isn't finished, the generosity of fans and friends who have helped raise money to defray his medical costs through a GoFundMe page have given him the strength to move forward.
"It's definitely boosted my spirits," Coleman said. "Maybe at one point I felt sorry for myself for a few days when this happened, but no, there's people with a lot worse problems than I have right now."
The 50-year old Coleman was involved in contact sports dating back to his amateur wrestling days, a distinguished career in which he competed in the 1992 Olympics and won an NCAA title at Ohio State. The decades of physical punishment from both wrestling and MMA eventually necessitated a hip replacement.
"I got a hip replacement surgery two years ago, it felt great, but some things went wrong down the line, it popped out 5-6 times after I did The Ultimate Fighter show," Coleman said." it was fine there and that was a great experience, but when I got back home, basically it was just popping out once a freaking week. ... I'm basically walking around scared to bend over, scared to do anything because of this thing. I finally get into the surgeon, and he decided he was going to not replace the whole hip that he did two years ago, he's going to replace the socket, bigger ball and socket."
Instead, when the doctor cut Coleman open, an infection was found.
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A grateful Mark Coleman on his recent troubles: 'I gotta fight through this' - MMA Fighting
