Mark Schultz
Olympic Result: Gold, 1984, #6, 1988
An episode of Fight Lore on UFC Fight Pass and the biopic Foxcatcher details the tragedy that Mark Schultz and his late brother Dave faced in the mid-90s. His wrestling career, however, dates back to much earlier.
Schultz’s story is well-known thanks to that documentary, but the long and short of it is, brother Dave was murdered by Team Foxcatcher founder John Du Pont just four months before Mark appeared at UFC 9 in 1996. Schultz beat Gary Goodridge that night, but never stepped inside the octagon again.
Schultz won gold at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, competing in freestyle wrestling at 82kg. A three-time NCAA Division I champion, it was a career highlight, and brother Dave won gold at the Olympics that same year. Things went south ahead of the 1988 games however, with Team Foxcatcher’s Du Pont coming apart at the seams, appearing increasingly paranoid, and threatening to ruin Schultz’s career. In protest, and not wanting Du Pont to have any claim to a gold medal, Schultz threw his match against Turkey’s Necmi Genculp, though this was not widely known at the time.
Schultz remains one of the biggest “what ifs” of early UFC history.
