Kevin Jackson

This article is about the wrestler. For other people called Kevin Jackson, see Kevin Jackson (disambiguation).
Kevin Jackson
Born

November 25, 1964 (1964-11-25) (age 52)

[1]
Highland Falls, New York, U.S.[1]
College Iowa State University
Status Coach of Iowa State University
Other names "Lightning"
Nationality American
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight 199 lb (90 kg; 14.2 st)
Mixed martial arts record
Total 6
Wins 4
By submission 4
Losses 2
By submission 2
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog
Medal record
Men's freestyle wrestling
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
1992 Barcelona 82 kg
World Championships
1991 Varna 82 kg
1995 Atlanta 82 kg
Pan American Games
1991 Havana –82 kg
1995 Mar del Plata –82 kg

Kevin Andre Jackson (born November 25, 1964 in Highland Falls, New York)[1] is an American Olympic gold medalist wrestler and former professional mixed martial arts competitor. After retiring from active competition he is currently serving as the head wrestling coach at Iowa State University, having been hired in 2009 after Cael Sanderson moved to Penn State University. Before joining Iowa State, Jackson was a four-time All-American, first for Louisiana State and then for Iowa State, where he was the NCAA runner-up in 1987.

As a wrestler, he was an Olympic gold medalist freestyle wrestler, and a former mixed martial arts fighter. He won a gold medal in Freestyle wrestling at the 1992 Summer Olympics. After retiring from competition, in 2001, Jackson became the U.S. national freestyle coach, based at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs.

Biography

High school

The native of Lansing, Mich., won two state high school championships for Eastern High School before becoming a Junior National Greco-Roman wrestling champion.

College

As a college wrestler, he attended LSU and earned All-America honors three times before the school dropped the sport. He transferred to Iowa State for his senior year and captained the Cyclones’ last NCAA championship team (1987), earning another All-America award with an NCAA runner-up finish and registering a 30-3-1 record.

Career

In 1992 he won a gold medal in wrestling and was invited to join "Team Foxcatcher", but was let go the next year when John du Pont started getting paranoid delusions and did not want anything black in his estate, from cars to horses to people. Soon after, Jackson won two Pan American Games titles and was a member of World Championship teams for the United States in both 1993 and 1995. He won three U.S. National Titles and placed second five times. Jackson also became the first American to win the prestigious Takhti Cup (1998) in Tehran, Iran. During his post-collegiate competitive career, Jackson also assisted with the Cyclone Wrestling Club (1989–92) and volunteered with the Arizona State (1997) program.

Jackson participated in mixed martial arts in 1997, when he joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship to become only the 2nd Olympic Gold medalist wrestler to step in the octagon,[2] eventually winning the UFC 14 Middleweight tournament. He fought Frank Shamrock for the Middleweight title at UFC Japan, but lost by armbar. He retired from MMA competition in 1998 after six fights.

Jackson's success earned him a number of major awards, including the 1995 John Smith Award as National Freestyle Wrestler of the Year, 1992 Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year and 1991 USA Wrestling and USOC Wrestler of the Year. Jackson is a member of the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame, the United States National Wrestling Hall of Fame (as a distinguished member) and the Iowa State University Athletics Hall of Fame.

Jackson has worked extensively as a wrestling coach. He was head coach of the Sunkist youth development program, National Freestyle coach for USA Wrestling for eight years (2001–08) and the freestyle wrestling coach for two United States' teams at the Olympics. Jackson was the freestyle coach at the Olympic Training Center and head coach for the U.S. Army team at Fort Carson (1998–2001).[3]

Championships and awards

Mixed martial arts record

Res. Record Opponent Method Event Date Round Time Location Notes
Win 4-2 Sam Adkins Submission (armbar) Extreme Challenge 18 May 15, 1998 1 4:21 Davenport, Iowa, United States
Loss 3-2 Jerry Bohlander Technical Submission (armbar) UFC 16 March 13, 1998 1 10:23 Kenner, Louisiana, United States Fight of the Year (1998).
Loss 3-1 Frank Shamrock Submission (armbar) UFC Japan December 21, 1997 1 0:16 Yokohama, Japan For UFC Light Heavyweight Championship (up to 200 lbs)
Win 3-0 Tony Fryklund Submission (choke) UFC 14 July 27, 1997 1 0:44 Birmingham, Alabama, United States Won UFC 14 Middleweight Tournament
Win 2-0 Todd Butler Submission (strikes) UFC 14 July 27, 1997 1 1:27 Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Win 1-0 John Lober Submission (arm-triangle choke) Extreme Fighting 4 March 28, 1997 2 1:12 Des Moines, Iowa, United States

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Kevin Jackson". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  2. ↑ "UFC Olympic Gold Medalist wrestlers". Retrieved 2014-08-28.
  3. ↑ "Kevin Jackson Named ISU Head Wrestling Coach – Iowa State University Athletics Official Web Site – www.CYCLONES.com – The home of Iowa State Cyclone Sports". www.CYCLONES.com. Retrieved 2012-02-10.


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