The origin of the iconic footage of Mark Coleman pushing Joe Rogan into a wall has finally been explained.
It is likely that you have seen the footage of Joe Rogan grappling with former UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman if you are a fan of MMA or Joe Rogan.
Rogan arm drags Coleman and successfully gets to the back when the duo start to wrestle playfully. However, Coleman releases the hold before spinning around and pushing Rogan, who almost flew to the opposite side of the room before slamming into a wall.
Coleman provided background information on the now-famous video during an interview with The Hannibal TV.
Coleman explained,
“Honestly, people say I was drinking. I was not drinking. Just gave him [Joe Rogan] a hug and a lot of times when wrestlers give each other a hug, it turns into something more than that. Joe Rogan hit me with a nice slick arm-drag and he took my back.”
“I got hip issues at the time and all of a sudden out of instinct, I had no choice but to turn around and face him. I would say I gave him a gentle push because I could have gained a hundred times more.”
As a combat sports athlete of the highest caliber, Coleman is a real pioneer of the discipline. The first UFC heavyweight champion, Coleman also won the Pride 2000 open weight Grand Prix. He was a former Olympian and NCAA division I champion wrestler.
Mauricio Rua, Don Frye, Dan Severn, and Stephan Bonnar are just some of the opponents that Coleman has defeated.
Joe Rogan has been a fixture in the world of MMA for the last 20 years. He’s quite possibly the most influential voice that contributed to MMA breaking into mainstream and reaching the current levels of acceptance and popularity.
Rogan is also one of the only UFC commentators that has no MMA experience. While Joe Rogan practiced taekwondo in his youth and competed and done jiu-jitsu later in his life he’s not exactly an MMA practitioner. Now this isn’t to discredit Rogan and his understanding of the game – it’s simply to acknowledge he hasn’t tested himself in mixed martial arts.
And while many current and former athletes crave a spot in the UFC game, Rogan was given just that back at UFC 3 in a previous iteration of the game.
Rogan has also talked about the incident and revealed it ties into them visiting a gentleman’s club at a house.