UFC Icon 'Battling for Life' After Rescuing Parents From Fire

UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman is hospitalized and "battling for his life" after saving his parents from a house fire in Ohio around 4am Tuesday, his daughter says. Coleman, 59, "managed to carry both of his parents out of the house," she says. He then ran back inside in an attempt to save the family dog, which, according to an author who is writing a book about Coleman's life, had woken Coleman up and alerted him to the flames. The dog did not survive.

A fellow UFC fighter tells the Athletic he's not surprised at all to hear his friend would run into a burning house. "You've got to look at the sport Mark came from," Dan Severn says. "People ... don't understand the foundation that a sport like amateur wrestling brings to a person." The bravery required to do what Coleman did, Severn says, "is some of the moral fabric that a sport like amateur wrestling teaches you." Coleman, whom TMZ calls "one of the MMA promotion's earliest stars," is now in critical condition and sedated. The roof collapsed shortly after fire crews entered the home, which was a total loss. The fire is believed to have started in the kitchen. (More mixed martial arts stories.)