UFC champ fighting for his life after saving family members from fire
Former UFC fighter Mark Coleman was hospitalized and placed in a medically induced coma after rescuing his parents from a Tuesday morning house fire in Toledo, Ohio.
According to a social media post by his daughter Morgan, her dad rushed into the home and got his parents, Dan and Connie, to safety. He also went back inside to rescue the family’s dog, Hammer — who had originally alerted Coleman to the fire in the kitchen — but the animal did not survive.
“He was life-flighted to the hospital where he is currently battling for his life after this heroic act,” she captioned an old photo of Coleman on Instagram.
“Our father has always been our hero and means the world to us,” she added. “He is and always will be a fighter. The strongest and bravest man I know.”
Coleman’s parents were not seriously injured, but Coleman suffered smoke inhalation and was induced into a coma in intensive care, his manager Michael DiSabato told NBC News. DiSabato said the family believes he’ll recover.
Fellow former fighter Wes Sims asked for people to pray for Coleman.
“I swear to GOD — he’s one of the toughest individual ever created, been thru so much a movie at this point could not give his life work justice!,” Sims wrote on Facebook.
Coleman, from Fremont, Ohio, became the first UFC heavyweight champion after defeating Dan Severn in 1997. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2008. He also won the 1988 National Championship in wrestling at Ohio State and competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.