Donald Frye (born November 23, 1965) is an American formermixed martial artist,professional wrestler, andactor. In MMA, he was one of the sport's earliest well-rounded fighters and won theUFC 8 andDavid vs. Goliath 96 tournaments and finished as runner-up atUFC 10 in his first year of competition. He retired from MMA in 1997 to pursue a career in professional wrestling withNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and quickly became one of the company's leadingheels. After spending four years as one of Japan's topgaijin wrestlers, he returned to MMA with thePride Fighting Championships in September 2001, much more muscular and sporting anAmerican patriot persona in response to theSeptember 11 attacks. He fought bouts withKen Shamrock andYoshihiro Takayama during his two years in Pride. He departed the promotion to compete inK-1 andHero's in 2004 but returned for the final Pride event in 2007. He was inducted into theUFC Hall of Fame in 2016.

Frye was born of Irish and Scottish descent. He beganwrestling atBuena High School inSierra Vista, Arizona, then in college forArizona State University in 1984, where he was trained by fellow futureUltimate Fighting Championship competitor, assistant wrestling coachDan Severn. In 1987, he won thefreestyle andGreco-Roman events during anOlympic qualifier.^[1] A year later, he transferred toOklahoma State University–Stillwater, where his teammates included future colleagueRandy Couture.^[2]

After college, Frye trained inboxing for a year and a half and made hisprofessional debut on August 28, 1989, inPhoenix, Arizona, scoring a first-round knockout over Luis Mora. After eight bouts over the next fourteen months he retired and became anemergency medical technician and a firefighter inBisbee, Arizona.^[2] He boxed under the name J.R. Frye in several matches after being forced to change his name due to a contractual dispute. In his final boxing match, Frye lost via technical knockout to David Kilgour ofSomis, California, at theReseda Country Club inReseda, Los Angeles on December 11, 1990, bringing his professional record to two wins, five losses and one draw.^[3] Frye also worked in a psychiatric ward but left that position after breaking a patient's arm while restraining him.^[4] During this time, he also took upjudo and earned the rank of seconddanblack belt.^[5]

In 1995, Don Frye helped trainDan Severn for theUltimate Ultimate 1995, accompanying Severn's entourage to Denver. He soon made the jump to the burgeoning sport ofmixed martial arts himself and joined theUltimate Fighting Championship the following year. Debuting atUFC 8 inBayamón, Puerto Rico on February 16, 1996, Frye was among the eight competitors in theopenweight tournament that night and was one of two fighters of the era skilled in bothstand-up andground fighting, the other beingMarco Ruas.^[6] In the quarter-finals, he set the record (since broken byDuane Ludwig andJorge Masvidal) for fastestknockout in UFC history when his punches knocked down 410-lb Thomas Ramirez in just eight seconds. After a quicktechnical knockout ofSam Adkins in the semis, taking him down and landing hammerfists to the face for the TKO, he met withGary Goodridge in the final, and forced the Trinidadian tosubmit simply by gaining dominant position at the 2:14 mark, though not without landing multiple uppercuts standing and punches on the ground. This would be the first in a trilogy of fights between the pair. Due to the controversy surrounding MMA at the time, Frye was barred from bothfirefighting, his previous occupation in his hometown ofSierra Vista, Arizona, and from training in theBuena High School gym he had used since his ASU days following the event.^[3]

Frye returned atUFC 9 in Detroit, Michigan on May 19, 1996, for a match with fellow tournament winner Marco Ruas, but Ruas was injured and replaced byBrazilian jiu-jitsu stylistAmaury Bitetti. Frye stopped his opponent's takedowns and land punches, knees and elbows, and used a judoude-garami on the jiu-jitsu champion, something that was unusual at the time. At the end, after an especially hard series of strikes to the spine and head of the Brazilian, the match was stopped and Frye was declared winner.^[7]

AtUFC 10 inBirmingham, Alabama, on July 12, 1996, Frye returned to tournament format. He defeatedMark Hall by stoppage, slamming the Moo Yea Do specialist and working his side with body punches until the stoppage, and then defeatedBrian Johnston, again leading the action to the mat and landing elbows to the head. However, at the finals of the event, Frye facedMark Coleman, who was considered the "godfather" of theground and pound strategy Frye often followed. Coleman, a more decorated wrestling champion than Frye himself, kept the top position through the match and landed multiple strikes to the face. Frye capitalized on a failedneck crank attempt to get standing and try to outmatch Coleman there, but he was taken down again, and a late takedown attempt of his own also failed, with Coleman reversing and threatening with an overhead throw before returning to his routine. At the end, after Coleman secured side mount and dropped punches and headbutts onto Frye's face, the referee stopped the action, handing Frye his first loss in seven fights.

Frye won at theU-Japan event in November 1996, taking a submission victory by forearm choke overMark Hall in a rematch. Just one month later, Frye entered the UFC'sUltimate Ultimate 96 tournament, held to find the best of the best from past tournament winners and runners up. He firstly went for the second time against Gary Goodridge, who brawled on the clinch before taking Frye down and landing headbutts, but the result was the same, as Goodridge tapped out as soon as Frye got dominant position. Frye then facedMark Hall for the third time in his career, but this fight was even shorter, with Frye getting a takedown and anAchilles lock for the give up in 20 seconds. In the finals, Frye faced strikerTank Abbott, who landed early shots, opening a cut on Frye's face and causing swelling. However, Abbott lost his balance and fell, allowing Frye to secure arear naked choke, to take the title ofUltimate Ultimate 96 Champion, his second UFC Tournament Championship.

Hall would later claim that Don Frye and manager Robert DePersia convinced him tothrow the two fighters' semi-final match. Hall says that since Tank Abbott had already advanced to the final after two relatively easy wins, Frye – who'd logged eleven minutes of cage time already that night – wanted to save his energy for the championship match. Because he'd already suffered two defeats to Frye earlier in his career (and therefore probably wasn't going to win anyway) and DePersia implied that saying no would have a disastrous impact on his future, Hall says he reluctantly agreed to go along with the plot.^[8] RefereeJohn McCarthy later wrote in his autobiographyLet's Get It On!:

Unfortunately, this night was the second time I felt I was refereeing a fixed bout. In the semifinals, Don Frye and Mark Hall met in a rematch of their UFC 10 bout. In their first encounter Frye had beaten the piss out of Hall, who'd refused to give up. Here, though, Frye ankle-locked Hall to advance to the finals without breaking a sweat. The fight struck me as odd. Frye, a bread-and-butter wrestler and swing-for-the-fences puncher, had never won a fight by leg lock, and Hall practically fell into the submission. I also knew both fighters were managed by the same guy.^[9]

Despite his success in MMA, Frye retired from the sport after winning theUltimate Ultimate '96 tournament.

A successful celebrity in Japan due to his pro wrestling career, Don Frye made his comeback to mixed martial arts when he signed a multi-fight contract with thePride Fighting Championships in 2001. Appearing in an MMA bout for the first time in five years atPride 16 inOsaka, Japan on September 24, 2001, two weeks after theSeptember 11 attacks, Frye entered the ring waving anAmerican flag and wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "terrorists suck". He was also noticeably more muscular and seemingly stronger than his UFC days, having gained 7 kilograms (15 lb) in weight since his last MMA outing. However, his fight withGilbert Yvel that night was controversial and resulted in Frye winning by disqualification in the first round, as Yvel repeatedlygouged his eyes and was eventually disqualified for continuously holding the ropes to stop himself beingtaken down.

Three months later, at a joint New Year's Eve showInoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2001:K-1 vs.Inoki, Frye defeatedCyril Abidi with relative ease, taking the French kickboxer to the mat and controlling him throughout round one before finishing him with a rear naked choke in two.

Frye returned to Pride in February 2002, facing long-time rivalKen Shamrock atPride 19 in a fight he had been trying totrash-talk himself into ever since Shamrock had defeated Dan Severn atUFC 6.^[10] Frye got the edge on a series of clinch battles, while Shamrock dropped down for an ankle lock and transitioned into both akneebar and atoehold, wrenching Frye's leg badly; however, despite the damage, Frye refused to tap out and managed to knock Shamrock down in a subsequent punching exchange. The bout moved to the mat, where Shamrock attempted another ankle lock, only for Frye to try to counter with one of his own and finally refusing to tap out until time ran out. After an exciting and hard fought battle, Frye pulled out asplit decision victory in which many people including the commentators Bass Rutten and stephen quadros said Ken Shamrock won the fight. Even though Shamrock had injured Frye's ankles, later leading to Frye's dependency on painkillers for several years,^[11] the two hugged after the fight ended, putting an end to their rivalry. Many MMA fans agree that both fighters were never the same again, as both their careers began a steady downturn after the fight.

Four months after defeating Ken Shamrock, Frye returned to MMA to face Japanese professional wrestlerYoshihiro Takayama atPride 21 on June 23, 2002. In a fight that many consider to be one of Pride's most exciting matches, Frye and Takayama clinched in ahockey fight pose, each holding the head and hitting, with Takayama finally going to the body after more than a full minute of unrelenting, undefended shots. This would happen three times in the fight, until the referee stopped the bout after Frye mounted Takayama, who was visibly much worse for the wear.

On August 28, 2002, he took onJérôme Le Banner in akickboxing match at the K-1/Pride co-promoted eventPride Shockwave, fighting in front of 91,107 people. Frye had mentioned in an interview prior to the fight that (besides knee strikes) he had never thrown a kick in his life and his disadvantage was obvious as he couldn't use his wrestling skills and was repeatedlythrown when he tried to tie up with Le Banner. After being given astanding eight count early on, he was forced into a corner and knocked unconscious with a righthook at the 1:30 mark of the first round.

Riding a new wave of popularity, Frye's next outing was a return to MMA atPride 23 on November 24, 2002, to face Olympic gold medalist judokaHidehiko Yoshida. Taking his first loss since fighting Mark Coleman in 1996, Frye was submitted by Yoshida viaarmbar in the first round. While Frye did not tap out, the referee stopped the bout in fear of serious injury.

Frye took seven months off following the losses to Le Banner and Yoshida, and next fought atPride 26 on June 28, 2003, to try to avenge his loss to Mark Coleman. In a rather long battle, Frye lost aunanimous decision to Coleman after three rounds.

Another rematch was on tap forPride Shockwave 2003 on New Year's Eve, 2003 when Frye faced Gary Goodridge for the third time. The fight lasted only 39 seconds; Goodridge scored a vicious high kick to the head, knocking Frye out completely.

Don Frye departed Pride on the back of four consecutive losses and next appeared fighting under MMA rules in K-1. His first fight, withYoshihiro Nakao atK-1 MMA ROMANEX on May 22, 2004, ended in ano contest when Frye could not continue due to a cut sustained from an accidentalheadbutt early in round one.

Don Frye and Yoshihiro Nakao rematched atK-1 Premium 2004 Dynamite on December 31, 2004, with Nakao coming out on top and winning a unanimous decision, resigning the American to his sixth unsuccessful fight.

After another brief retirement, he returned in K-1'sHero's branch in May 2006 to fightAkebono atHero's 5. Akebono spent much of the fight clinching with the much smaller Frye and pushing him into the ropes, but Frye was able to knock the former sumo wrestler down and secure aguillotine choke submission in the second round.

Just ten days later, in his first appearance in the United States since 1996, Don Frye took on Ruben Villarreal inKing of the Cage: Predator inGlobe, Arizona. After three rounds of what many considered to be a lackluster fight, the bout was ruled adraw.

In his sophomore Hero's fight, he defeatedYoshihisa Yamamoto atHero's 6 on August 5, 2006, using the rear naked choke towards the end of the first round. In his last appearance in the promotion, Frye facedKim Min-Soo atHero's 7 on October 9, 2006, and knocked him out with a right hook in the second round.

Don Frye made his Pride return after an almost four-year hiatus, taking onJames Thompson at the last promotion's last ever event,Pride 34 on April 8, 2007. After an aggressive start, Thompson landed twosoccer kicks that dazed Frye. Thompson landed several more blows on a defenseless Frye before the referee called the fight at 6:25 in the first round.^[12]

That year, he also assembled and coached theArizona-basedTucson Scorpions in theInternational Fight League, but on November 9, 2007, announced on TAGG radio that he and the IFL had parted ways. They were one of four new teams established at the beginning of the 2007 season. He also wrote a humorous weekly column called "Dear Don: Advice from The Predator" in which he gives fans advice on love, life, friendship, and more.

Following a forty-seven second knockout of Bryan Pardoe atNLF: Heavy Hands inDallas, Texas, in January 2008, Don Frye announced on February 8, 2008, on TAGG Radio that he would be fightingOleg Taktarov on the debut card forYAMMA Pit Fighting on April 11 in theTrump Taj Mahal inAtlantic City, New Jersey. The fight was to be the first fight in YAMMA's Masters Division, a division for fighters over the age of 39. However, he had to withdraw due to an injury and was replaced by UFC 1 entreePatrick Smith.^[13]

Following his tenure with the IFL and a one-off fight with Texas-based promotionNoLimit Fighting, Don Frye competed in his inaugural fight with theDEEP organization, fighting Japanese fan favoriteIkuhisa Minowa. Minowa won viakneebar at the 3:56 mark of round one, dropping Frye's record in Japan to 8-6. From there, he signed withShark Fights stateside the following year. His submitted Ritch Moss atShark Fights 4 in May 2009 but suffered a quick TKO loss at the hands ofDave Herman atShark Fights 6: Stars & Stripes four months later.^[14]

After a two-year absence and at forty-six years of age, Frye was scheduled to face Mike Gonzalez for the Gladiator Challenge Light Heavyweight title. However, Gonzalez was injured, so Frye instead faced Ruben Villareal in a rematch at Heavyweight. Frye lost via knock-out.^[15]

After leaving the UFC, Frye went intoprofessional wrestling and was trained byBrad Rheingans andCurt Hennig.^[16] He debuted forNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in August 1997, defeatingKazuyuki Fujita in his first match. By 1998, Frye began to rise in the ranks as he quickly became one of the company's leadheels. On April 4, 1998, Frye won the Antonio Final Opponent tournament and earned the right to wrestle NJPW founder and wrestling legendAntonio Inoki in his retirement match, which took place later that night. Frye lost that fight. After a brief feud withKensuke Sasaki at the end of that year, Frye joinedMasahiro Chono's new stable, Team 2000, in early 1999. After joining, Frye would spend most of 1999 and early 2000 feuding withScott Norton over the unofficial title of Gaijin Ace, took part in the G1 Tag League in 1999 with Chono, and make two challenges for theIWGP Heavyweight Championship but was unsuccessful in each attempt.^[17] He lost out toKeiji Mutoh in his first title shot in April 1999 and was defeated byKensuke Sasaki in his second in February 2000.

After being in Team 2000 for two years, Frye left the group and joined Keiji Mutoh's new stable,BATT, where he made a third attempt at the IWGP title in July 2001 but came up short again, falling to Kazayuki Fukita.^[17] In September 2001, Frye won the G1 World Climax tournament. After the tournament win, Frye left NJPW and returned to MMA. Stepping back into the pro wrestling arena, Frye would make a one-time appearance at NJPW's Fighting Spirit Memorial DayTokyo Dome show on May 2, 2002, where he defeatedTadao Yasuda.^[18]From October to November 2004, Frye returned to NJPW for two appearances as a member of Masahiro Chono'sBlack New Japan stable, teaming with Chono in a tag match defeatingHiroyoshi Tenzan andYuji Nagata and then teaming withScott Norton andManabu Nakanishi in a winning effort againstShinsuke Nakamura,Yutaka Yoshie, andBlue Wolf.

In a brief comeback to professional wrestling in 2003, he competed for Fighting World of Japan on two occasions. He also appeared forAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) on October 26, 2003, at their 31st anniversary, challengingToshiaki Kawada for theTriple Crown Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort.^[19]

On October 2, 2005, Frye took part in AJPW's Wrestle-1 Grand Prix where he lost toJamal.^[19]

During his brief MMA hiatus, Frye made a one-off appearance as a pro wrestler inInoki Genome Federation, losing toJosh Barnett viakeylock submission on September 8, 2007.^[19] In October 2008, Frye wrestled at the Pro Wrestling Expo shows, teaming withYoshihiro Takayama in a losing effort toMasahiro Chono andScott Norton on the first day, then losing a six-man tag on the third day.

Frye returned to a professional wrestling ring on March 17, 2013, at an event held by AJPW in Tokyo. After teaming with Keiji Mutoh to defeatMasayuki Kono and Yoshihiro Takayama in a tag team match, Frye engaged in a post-match brawl with Takayama, playing off theirPride 21 bout from 2002.^[20]

Don Frye began acting in movies withGodzilla: Final Wars (2004), playing the role of Captain Douglas Gordon. In an interview, Frye mentions that unlike his fights where he has complete control, acting in a Godzilla film he had no control but enjoyed the experience nonetheless. The director of the film,Ryuhei Kitamura, mentioned that he wrote the role with Frye in mind since he was a fan of Frye's matches. Kitamura found Frye's tough-guy/good-heart demeanor to be the perfect role for the character of Gordon. Curiously, for a prominent character in a Japanese-language film, all of his dialogue was spoken in English.

The year 2005 turned out to be a busy year for Frye as he made several appearances. InJust Another Romantic Wrestling Comedy, he played Rocco Piedra, the father of a wrestling family who dreams on marrying their child off to a famous wrestler. He also appeared inNo Rules and starred inNagurimono. In 2006, he made an appearance as anAryan Brotherhood member inMiami Vice, lent his voice forThe Ant Bully, and appeared in theRob Schneider prison comedyBig Stan, along with fellow mixed martial artistsRandy Couture andBob Sapp in 2007.

He played FBI agent Clarence Hurt inPublic Enemies, by directorMichael Mann.^[21]

Since he competed in Pride FC, he has also appeared in several commercial ads in Japan. The latest one is a television ad for ayakisoba product named "UFO" produced byNissin Foods (an executive officer was a fierce fan of Frye).His significant popularity in Japan in the 2000s might be attributed to his "good old tough fuddy-duddy" character reminiscent of sheriffs in some 1960s American movies.

Frye appeared in an episode ofIt's Always Sunny in Philadelphia entitled "The Gang Wrestles for the Troops", in which he played a professional wrestler that was getting pummeled byRoddy Piper's character, "Da' Maniac". He is credited onIMDb for the role as "Wrestling Opponent".^[22]

Frye also appeared in a new AT&T mini-movie advertisement for the Blackberry Bold 9700 entitled "Stay One Step Ahead" during the 2009 holiday season.^[23]

Frye provided the voice for the main villain Matt Ninesister in the third installment of the Stick 10: Even More Swag animated specials,The United League of Stereotypes.^[24] Frye also portrayed mayor and former wrestlerMike Haggar in theFinal Fight fan film "The Broken Gear".^[25]

Frye is divorced and has two daughters.^[26]

• George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
  • George Tragos Award (2024)
• Ultimate Fighting Championship
  • UFC Hall of Fame (Pioneer Wing, Class of 2016)
  • UFC 8 Tournament Winner
  • UFC Ultimate Ultimate 1996 Tournament Winner
  • UFC 10 Tournament Runner-Up
  • UFC Viewer's Choice Award^[27]
  • UFC Encyclopedia Awards
    • Fight of the Night (Three times) vs.Amaury Bitetti,Mark Coleman andTank Abbott^[28][29][30]
    • Submission of the Night (One time) vs.Mark Hall^[30]
  • One of only two fighters to win a UFC Tournament and Ultimate Ultimate Tournament (Dan Severn)
  • Tied (Sergei Pavlovich) for the secondlongest knockout win streak in UFC history (6)^[31]
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Fight of the Year (2002)vs. Yoshihiro Takayama on June 23

• New Japan Pro-Wrestling
  • Antonio Inoki Final Opponent Tournament Winner (1998)^[32]
  • G-1 World League (2001)^[33]
  • Greatest Gaijin Grapple Section (2002)^[18]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Ranked No. 175 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in thePWI 500 in 1999^[34]
  • Ranked No. 247 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the "PWI Years" in 2003^[35]

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
8	Loss	2–5–1	David Kilgour	TKO	4 (4),1:36	Dec 11, 1990	Reseda Country Club, Reseda, California, U.S.
7	Loss	2–4–1	Leon Carter	KO	? (4),	Oct 1, 1990	Tijuana, Mexico
6	Draw	2–3–1	Fred Heath	D	4	Jul 31, 1990	Reseda Country Club, Reseda, California, U.S.
5	Loss	2–3	David Dixon	KO	? (4),	May 21, 1990	Great Western Forum,Inglewood, California, U.S.
4	Loss	2–2	Fred Heath	SD	4	Mar 27, 1990	Reseda Country Club, Reseda, California, U.S.
3	Loss	2–1	Rocky Pepeli	KO	? (4),	Oct 24, 1989	Reseda Country Club, Reseda, California, U.S.
2	Win	2–0	Troy Baudoin	KO	? (4),	Sep 26, 1989	Reseda Country Club,Reseda, California, U.S.
1	Win	1–0	Luis Mora	KO	1 (4),	Aug 28, 1989	Sun Devil House,Tempe, Arizona, U.S.

Kickboxing record

0 wins,1 loss,0 draws
Date	Result	Opponent	Event	Location	Method	Round	Time	Record
2002-08-28	Loss	Jérôme Le Banner	Pride Shockwave	Tokyo, Japan	KO (right hook)	1	1:30	0–1
Legend:  Win  Loss  Draw/No contest  Notes

^[36]

• Don Frye atUFC
• Professional MMA record for Don Frye fromSherdog

• Living people
• 1965 births
• American male boxers
• Boxers from Arizona
• Heavyweight boxers
• American male kickboxers
• Kickboxers from Arizona
• Heavyweight kickboxers
• American male mixed martial artists
• Mixed martial artists from Arizona
• Light heavyweight mixed martial artists
• Mixed martial artists utilizing boxing
• Mixed martial artists utilizing judo
• Mixed martial artists utilizing collegiate wrestling
• Mixed martial artists utilizing freestyle wrestling
• Mixed martial artists utilizing Greco-Roman wrestling
• Heavyweight mixed martial artists
• American male professional wrestlers
• American catch wrestlers
• American male judoka
• American male sport wrestlers
• Arizona State Sun Devils wrestlers
• Oklahoma State Cowboys wrestlers
• Male actors from Arizona
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• American people of Irish descent
• American people of Scottish descent
• American people of Pennsylvania Dutch descent
• People from Sierra Vista, Arizona
• Sportspeople from Cochise County, Arizona
• American expatriate sportspeople in Japan
• Professional wrestlers who competed in MMA
• Ultimate Fighting Championship male fighters
• Actors from Cochise County, Arizona
• 20th-century American sportsmen

• CS1 maint: archived copy as title
• CS1: unfit URL
• Webarchive template wayback links
• CS1 uses Japanese-language script (ja)
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• CS1 errors: missing title
• CS1 errors: bare URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from October 2024