Hallman, Dennis

Dennis Hallman was born December 2, 1975 in Olympia , Washington . At the age of eight, he began to engage in wrestling , was a member of the school wrestling team, and won the state championship in his age category. He planned to continue to engage in wrestling while studying at the university, but due to a broken leg lost a lot of time and ultimately was forced to abandon the career of a wrestler ^[1] .

He made his debut in mixed martial arts back in 1996 at the dawn of the formation of this sport. He defeated his first rival with a strangulation with the guillotine in 20 seconds. He fought mainly in local Washington promotions, and especially often participated in Extreme Challenge tournaments. Over the course of three years, he won twelve consecutive victories, including taking the upper hand over such strong rivals as Shannon Ritch and Matt Hughes . The first loss in his career suffered in April 1999 by unanimous decision of judges from compatriot Mike McClure.

In 2000, with seventeen victories and only four defeats, he attracted the attention of the major American promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship , where he made his debut with another victory over Matt Hughes, the future champion and member of the organization’s hall of fame. After several victories in other organizations in September 2001, he won the right to challenge the UFC lightweight champion title, which at that time belonged to Jens Pulver . During the fight, Hallman tried to hold the elbow lever on Pulver, but he avoided a painful reception and was able to deliver a strong blow to the jaw, as a result of which Hallman was shocked and forced to survive the rest of the time - in the end, the judges unanimously gave victory to Pulver ^[2] .

After this defeat, Dennis Hallman did not appear in the UFC for a long time, appearing in such promotions as King of the Cage and various less prestigious organizations. In 2004, he returned to the UFC for one fight, but lost by technical knockout to Frank Trigg and then again appeared only in secondary fighting tournaments. In 2007, he signed a contract with another large organization, Strikeforce , won the battle here, but failed the doping test (traces of anabolic steroids were found in his blood) and was suspended from the competition for a year ^[3] .

After the expiration of the suspension, he won another victory at Strikeforce and returned to the UFC. He played in the largest organization in the world quite successfully, during the period of 2009-2011 he won three matches here and lost only in two. Nevertheless, further planned fights were thwarted twice in a row due to the fact that Hallman could not meet the established weight category and each time showed weightings that significantly exceeded the limit values. He explained these hiccups with personal reasons, difficulties in the family, but he was still fired from the organization ^{[4] [5]} .

In later years, he lost more often than won. In 2013 and 2014, he twice came to fight in Russia, including speaking at the League S-70 tournament and was defeated by technical knockout from Mikhail Tsaryov’s Russian Avenue.

• Dennis Hallman (Eng.) - Professional Fight Statistics on Sherdog