http://blog.thesavagescience.com/2010/09/13/ufc-heavyweight-champs-in-pro-wrestling-mark-coleman Dave Meltzer at The Wrestling Observer points out an interesting fact about UFC heavyweight champions’ involvement in pro wrestling that makes all of the whining among MMA fans about its influence on ‘their’ sport seem downright silly. I’ve highlighted the important part:–Tim Sylvia becomes the 10th UFC heavyweight champion out of the 13 in history to become a pro wrestler, debuting for the Inoki Genome Federation on 9/25 in Tokyo against Josh Barnett, who has been a regular with the group. If you know the history of MMA you already know that the pro wrestling influence is nothing new, and the fact that 76% of UFC heavyweight champions have also done some ‘worked’ fights undercores this fact. 10 of the 13 men to hold the UFC heavyweight championship have also worked in pro wrestling, and we thought it would be interesting to run down the list. We’ll start at the beginning with Mark ‘The Hammer’ Coleman. Here he is wrestling in Japan’s HUSTLE promotion in 2007: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfL3F-auxXI&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
