Kevin Jackson

Biography

High school The native of Lansing, Michigan, 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 an Olympic 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, eventually winning the UFC 14 Light Heavyweight tournament. He fought Frank Shamrock for the inaugural UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC Japan, but lost via armbar submission. 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 National Wrestling Hall of Fame (as a Distinguished Member) and the Iowa State University Athletics Hall of Fame. In October 2019, Jackson was inducted into the LSU Hall of Fame and is the only wrestler to be inducted.

Jackson has worked extensively as a wrestling coach. He was the freestyle coach at the Olympic Training Center and head coach for the U.S. Army team at Fort Carson (1998–2001) and 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 served as head coach of Iowa State Cyclones from 2010 to 2017 where he coached 4 NCAA champions, 14 All-Americans, and 9 Big-12 Champions. Wrestling Observer Newsletter Fight of the Year (1998) vs. Jerry Bohlander on March 13

Mixed martial arts record Win

Sam Adkins Submission (armbar) Extreme Challenge 18

Davenport, Iowa, United States Loss

Jerry Bohlander Technical Submission (armbar) UFC 16

Kenner, Louisiana, United States Loss

Frank Shamrock Submission (armbar) UFC Japan

Yokohama, Japan Win

Tony Fryklund Submission (rear-naked choke)

Win

Todd Butler TKO (submission to punches)

Win

John Lober Submission (arm-triangle choke) Extreme Fighting 4

Des Moines, Iowa, United States