MMA Ironman #3: Dan Severn - 12/17/2003
by Derek Callahan

Dan The Beast Severn burst onto the mixed martial arts scene back in its infancy with his appearance at UFC 4: Revenge of the Warriors exactly 9 years ago today. With his arrival, the fans of the budding sport were introduced to the ground-and-pound style that would essentially rewrite the books of ground offense and defensive combat. Severns recognized professional MMA record of 52-7-6 is in no way indicative of his true tenacity, nor his accomplishments. This Ironman has fought as many as 17 matches in one day and claims an overall competitive record of 4,000+ matches combing wrestling and mixed martial arts. Dan Severn is a fitting addition to the MMAs Top-5 American Ironmen, and he brings up the #3 spot, as voted upon by you, the fans.


IF: Getting right to it, youre writing a book?
DS: I actually have three different books in progress, one Ive had going since 68, 69, but thats a technique book. Realistically did it start off that way? No, I just went to my first amateur wrestling clinic or camp and I started writing some moves down because they were different from anything Ive ever seen before and since that time Ive kept it going all these years and literally its the thickness of a notebook. I was thinking of calling it The Encyclopedia of Wrestling just because of all the stuff I have in it. Ive never come across one that is as inclusive as what I have so far.

IF: tell me about being one of the first wrestlers to dominate the UFC?
DS: In the beginning, wrestling influenced the no-holds-barred world. Now, the no-holds-bared world has influenced amateur wrestling. A lot of wrestlers in the beginning did not know things about cutting edges and pressure points - things of that nature. Theres a lot of techniques that you can do that were just principles of leverage, but now knowing where to place leverage points theyll have to change the rule book [in amateur wrestling] somewhere in the next three to five years. Theyre going to almost allow a submission because there are moves that you can do where you have the mans head and arm, and you can put him in such immense pain, that they cannot be pinned, yet they do not wish to continue. Wrestling has influenced the martial arts world, and now the martial arts world has influenced wrestling. So its kind of gone full gamut.

IF: Do you feel wrestling and MMA are almost neck-and-neck in that theyre both not entirely mainstream?
DS: Well wrestling has definitely been more mainstream in terms of the NCAA Championships, [theyre] played out on ESPN or something like that. I had my first freestyle national exposure back in 76 on CBSs Wide World of Sports. I set a national record for most matches and titles and all that kind of stuff. See people, they know me from what little stint Ive had in the MMA world, Ive been on the international competition team since 76 and the national scene since 72 but as I said before, Ive been wrestling since, 68, 69. My first exposure was in junior high, but nowadays you have a lot of these youth developmental programs where hey start kid. In some states they can compete at four. Ive had parents bring me their three year old theyre like, Mold him now. Im like Huh. Wow. I mean he knows nothing hes got the attention span of nothing, but theres a lot of kids I can at least teach gross motor skills to, and those types of things but its all got to be fun and games. Most of them, they dont even know what theyre doing which is the best way to teach. When they dont realize all this work that theyre doing is for a specific purpose, they just have fun and games.

IF: How involved have you been with MMA competition recently, and how long will you continue?
DS: I forget who it is right now, every other month they ask me do you know what your record is? Well, not really but to do some simple math, I started in 94. I average once a month. Sometimes Ill miss a month and the next month Ill do two or three. Two years ago I did a four banger in one month but I still continue that even at my age now, I still compete almost on an average of once a month. Ive got people that ask me, well how much longer are you gonna go? and Im like Heck I dont know, I kind of enjoy it, but the eventual aspect is, I will have to leave it because Father Time is catching up to me and Im just not the same war dog I once was.

IF: I know you said because you enjoy it, but are there any other reasons why you keep going so long?
DS: Not really, I dont look at it for the money. I didnt do it for the money in the first place. If you knew all the different fight companies that Ive worked for, Ive worked for probably all of them at one point in time or another. You name another UFC competitor who has accomplished any kind of credentials that have gone back and competed in the smaller shows. I kind of care the direction that the sport should head towards. And so I think Ive gained a lot of fans, the fact that they have got a chance to get to know the person outside of the world of competition. Even when I worked with the [former] WWF, most of the wrestlers there, they just stay inside the building I was about the only guy, I was the only guy, who used to go out there and sign autographs, take pictures, shake hands, and tell a couple stories to them, then Id go and do my thing.

IF: Right, its important, its what keeps fans coming back.
DS: Well, thats how I feel about it.

IF: Talk to me a little bit about the WWF, what prompted your move from there?
DS: Well I guess you could say creative differences, you know the cycle of a professional wrestler is if youre a good guy, you gotta somewhere be a bad guy, and if youre a bad guy, youre somewhere gonna be a bad guy, and it kind of goes full circle. Well I knew that was coming and I had some ideas as to how I would prefer to be a bad guy, and they had some crazy ideas of putting 666 across my forehead, and being an Undertaker disciple, and Im like, You know, I live in a small community, and I wanna know that I can go out, and have dinner someplace without someone walking by going, Severn, you blankety blank blank, whyd you do what you did on TV? and Im thinking if I had a mask, like the Kane character, if I was wearing a mask, they didnt know who you were, I would have been the nastiest person in the world because that character is inside of a duffel bag. Vince [McMahon] was saying, Dan, you know what kind of money you could make doing this? I said, Look, Vince I already make money, thats not why Im here in the first place. I entered the UFC. Not for money. I went into it originally because I wanted to test my skills. It was a calculated risk in the sense that I had not entered boxing because I dont possess those kinds of skills.

IF: Right, and with so many years of wrestling, I mean youve been doing it all your life.
DS: Right. So to know that if I could get within arms reach and clinch, take them down or something like this, Im okay, Im good to go. But I spar at least a couple times a week. And thats because Im training to fill-in that whole in my armor, so to speak.

IF: Randy Couture has been getting a lot of press lately about excelling at age 40, do you feel that people overlook your accomplishment of entering at 40?
DS: Its hard to say, a lot of times peoples attention spans are kind of short-lived. A lot of the athletes nowadays youre only as good as your last match or your last game or your last performance. If it wasnt a good one, theyll soon forget what you accomplished before that. Has it been overshadowed? No Im happy for Randy, hes a good guy and Im happy for his success. The UFC did contact me for the 10th Anniversary Show and they did contact me but they contacted me with less than two weeks notice and I already had some prior commitments so I went and honored out those commitments.

IF: So that was behind your decision not to go to the show?
DS: Yeah.

IF: What was your reaction when you first heard they were making a Hall of Fame?
DS: Oh, to me its kind of mixed emotions and a lot of that stuff. Since my involvement in this type of competition Ive been inducted into half a dozen different Hall of Fames in the martial arts world and two things that probably mean more to me is that I was inducted back in 84 into Arizona States hall of fame and I was the youngest inductee ever. See usually they wait when youre done competing, Im still an active competitor I even made that comment in my speech. By 94 I jumped into the Ultimate Fighting Championships, and I think by 96 Im marked as one of the top no-holds-barred competitors. Theres a quick cut decade thats been gone, but on the same token, I was contacted by Sports Illustrated back in 76 and I was a freshman at Arizona State, I was 34-0 with 24 pins. They wanted to do a story because I was like the greatest thing to hit the mat since the legendary Dan Gable.

IF: So really, interesting to note, youve been competing so long, that MMA is just another sport.
DS: Its just another form of competition to me. I dont call myself a fighter, I call myself a competitor. Im competitive if we play checkers. Thats just the way I am in nature. To me Im a workaholic, Ive been self-employed ever since the 92 Olympics well no one is looking out for my livelihood but me. I work hard every single day, sometimes I win, sometimes I take a couple steps backwards. I wouldnt trade with anybody else, I think I could probably go further along if I had, say, agents working on my behalf. To me I think I could be doing some kind of a career in some movies, or something of that nature. Ive got that villainous type look to me. [Big] John McCarthy, he got a big kick out of me especially when I first started doing the UFCs because he said he was asked at one point to write a book called Inside the Octagon and it was all going to be based on being the referee and the various athletes. And I go, John, youd be the perfect person to write this because the athletes are two different people between outside competition and inside, and he says, Severn Im going to write an entire chapter about you alone, I go, Why is that John? he says, Out of all the fighters, youre the only guy that comes up with one liners before your match, after your match and sometimes, in the middle of your match. Youre the scariest guy out there because youre just walking around being a competitor. A lot of these guys, before they did any kind of drug tests, he said, Theyre induced on a few different things. Theyre looking to try and take you head off. And to me, its just competition.

IF: Right, go back to what you said about some of the other fighters?
DS: Well that there was a number of other fighters, prior to the drug testing that was implemented, that might be wired a few different ways, they may not be functioning on their own abilities. Its my kind way of saying, whether they be induced into something, whether it be steroid-based, or amphetamine-based, or something to get them jacked up, get em going out there. Its not just in the fight world, its in any sport. Looking for the perpetual edge.

IF: I see what youre saying. Now you of course you have seen both the old and new UFCs, would you say steroid use is being more monitored, is it increasing or decreasing?
DS: I probably couldnt comment on that one, I think the threat of testing might be a little bit more prevalent.

IF: I understand what youre saying. Tell me about what it was like in your early UFCs.
DS: The athletes were wearing the uniform that depicted the discipline. I was asked in my original UFC, they wanted me to wear an amateur wrestling singlet, I was thinking, Heck, straps above my shoulders can be used to be choked, I said, No way, Im also a professional wrestler I will wear the uniform of a professional wrestler. A lot of people think Im a sellout to the fight world, when I went into the professional wrestling world. Actually its just the opposite, I was a professional wrestler as of 92, and a mixed martial artist as of 94 so if anything I was a sellout to the professional wrestling world.

IF: Yeah there are so many opinions out there.
DS: Well thats why youll never see me in one of those chat rooms or anything like that because too many people like to sit behind that hidden face with that fake name and theyll take pot shots at people. To me, if you got any real balls, step up and let it be known. When I say something pretty blunt, Ill let it be known who said what. A lot of armchair quarterbacks. There are people with too much free time in their life. To me, there are two types of people; there are those who engage life and there are those who sit on the sidelines and watch life pass them by. Im engaged in the game.

IF: So in a way, life is just a game.
DS: To me thats all it is, a glorified game of Monopoly. I keep it in that perspective. My record. The only thing that burns in my memory is the losses. Those I know. The victories? Nah. It blends. Ive had 4,000 lifetime matches. Ive done as many as 17 in one day. Now thats not the fight world. That was the amateur-wrestling world. I did that when I was a high school junior.

IF: All right, talk to me a little bit about your future now, what you foresee for yourself.
DS: Well, the inevitability is that I will be leaving competition. I came out on my own website, Ive kind of earmarked 2004 as my last year of competition. I started at 36 years of age, I just kind of came up with a number, Ill do this for about a decade and be done at 46. If I continue to compete, therell be fewer and further matches in between just for the facts that Father Time is winning out, reaction skills arent as good, my own priorities have changed a great deal and my time is being taken up in other ways. I have a 10,000 square foot training facility here in Coldwater, Michigan. I run classes basically four days a week. We teach a number of different things. I run wrestling camps during the summer months, I even have some martial arts camps. Ive got that going. I have a small professional wrestling promotion thats going, I have a small fight company thats going. Im doing my own instructional videotapes slowly but surely and I have a very active fight circuit still, professional wrestling circuit still, speaking engagements, appearances and signings.

Visit us at:

insidefighting.com