Dan Severn

Dan “The Beast” Severn is one of the most accomplished fighters of our era. Most of us know of Dan Severn from his heydays in the early UFC. His career in combative sports is legendary and still continues to this day.

Severn’s background is in Greco Roman wrestling and his amateur career also has record-breaking status. He was a two-time national champ in high school, and a four-time all-American in university. He is a member of Arizona State’s wrestling hall of fame, fighting over 4,000 wrestling matches which include 95 State, national or international championships.

Severn continued wrestling after college, winning numerous competitions all over the world, including 13 National AAU wrestling championships. In 1994 he stepped into the UFC 4 octagon (at the time the UFC was still promoting one-night multiple fight tournaments) and won his first two matches, only to lose in the finals to Royce Gracie. He came back at UFC 5 to win the tournament championship, but he lost the UFC Superfight Championship to Ken Shamrock in UFC 6. He beat three opponents to win the Ultimate Ultimate Championship in 1995, which only included previous winners and runner-ups. He is also one of only three fighters in the UFC Hall of Fame.

His mixed martial arts record is a staggering 79-14-7. Dan still continues to compete today and his last fight was in June of 2007, which he won by choke in the first round. Since leaving the UFC he has fought for numerous promotions including King of the Ring, World Extreme Cagefighting, Gladiator Challenge, Continental Freefighting Alliance, and about six others. He created his own training and promotion company in the late nineties called The Danger Zone, which trains amateur and professional MMA fighters. He is also undefeated in Danger Zone competition.

Dan Severn also had a very successful professional wrestling career that included most of the big-name promotions. He headlined for all of these promotions and had a competition schedule in the nineties that was non-stop. He was able to control most opponents once he got them on the ground, and would have been ever more dominant if the ground and pound method of fighting had been in existence in his best days.