Kevin Jackson

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title: "Kevin Jackson" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1964-births", "living-people", "american-wrestling-coaches", "iowa-state-cyclones-wrestlers", "iowa-state-cyclones-wrestling-coaches", "lsu-tigers-wrestlers", "wrestlers-at-the-1992-summer-olympics", "american-male-sport-wrestlers", "medalists-at-the-1992-summer-olympics", "olympic-gold-medalists-for-the-united-states-in-wrestling", "martial-artists-from-phoenix,-arizona", "american-male-mixed-martial-artists", "mixed-martial-artists-utilizing-freestyle-wrestling", "mixed-martial-artists-utilizing-greco-roman-wrestling", "world-wrestling-championships-medalists", "wrestlers-at-the-1991-pan-american-games", "wrestlers-at-the-1995-pan-american-games", "medalists-at-the-1991-pan-american-games", "medalists-at-the-1995-pan-american-games", "pan-american-games-gold-medalists-for-the-united-states-in-wrestling", "ultimate-fighting-championship-male-fighters", "20th-century-american-sportsmen"] description: "American wrestler and coach (born 1964)" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Jackson" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American wrestler and coach (born 1964) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox amateur wrestler"]

Field	Value
name	Kevin Jackson
image	Coach Kevin Jackson, ISU Head Wrestling Coach (6217569505) (cropped).jpg
caption	Jackson in 2011
weight	82 kg
birth_date
birth_place	Highland Falls, New York, U.S.
high school	Lansing Eastern (MI)
state championships	2 (Michigan)
college	Iowa State University
ncaa championships	1 Team Championship
olympic team
olympic medal
status	Head Development Coach at Olympic Training Center, Former Coach of Iowa State University
{{Infobox martial artist	child
height
weight	199 lb
mma_kowin	1
mma_subwin	3
mma_subloss	2
sherdog	172
show-medals	yes
::

::callout[type=note] the wrestler ::

| name = Kevin Jackson | image = Coach Kevin Jackson, ISU Head Wrestling Coach (6217569505) (cropped).jpg | alt = | caption = Jackson in 2011 | weight = 82 kg | birth_date = | birth_place = Highland Falls, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | high school = Lansing Eastern (MI) | state championships = 2 (Michigan) | college = Iowa State University | ncaa championships = 1 Team Championship | olympic team = | olympic medal = | status = Head Development Coach at Olympic Training Center, Former Coach of Iowa State University | module = | other_names = | nationality = | height = | weight = 199 lb | mma_kowin = 1 | mma_subwin = 3 | mma_decwin = | mma_koloss = | mma_subloss = 2 | mma_decloss = | mma_draw = | mma_nc = | sherdog = 172 | updated = | show-medals = yes | medaltemplates = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Olympic_rings.svg"] ::

Kevin Andre Jackson (born November 25, 1964) is an American retired freestyle and folkstyle wrestler, and mixed martial artist. Following his competitive career, Jackson would become a wrestling coach.

During his international career, Jackson became an Olympic Gold medalist in 1992, a two-time World Champion (1991 and 1995), a three-time World Cup Gold medalist (1993, 1995 and 1997, bronze in 1994) a two-time Pan American Games Gold medalist (1991 and 1995) and a two-time Pan American Champion (1990 and 1991). In folkstyle, Jackson was a four-time NCAA Division I All-American, thrice for the LSU Tigers and once for the Iowa State Cyclones, after Louisiana State University dropped its wrestling program. He also stepped into the UFC Octagon in four occasions, winning his first two bouts and losing the next two, all finishing via submission. After spending the last four years as USA Wrestling's National Freestyle Developmental Coach, Jackson made the move to Ann Arbor, MI to serve as an Assistant Wrestling Coach for the University of Michigan.

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. In June 2017 Kevin went back to the Olympic Training Center as a US National Team Freestyle development coach and launched the Elite Accelerated Program (EAP).

Championships and awards

• Ultimate Fighting Championship

  • UFC 14 Middleweight tournament winner
  • UFC Encyclopedia Awards
    • Submission of the Night (One time) vs. Tony Fryklund

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

  • Fight of the Year (1998) vs. Jerry Bohlander on March 13

Mixed martial arts record

| draws= | nc= | ko-wins= 1 | ko-losses= | sub-wins= 3 | sub-losses= 2 | dec-wins= | dec-losses= | dq-wins= | dq-losses= | other-wins=

other-losses=
Win
align=center
Sam Adkins
Submission (armbar)
Extreme Challenge 18

| | align=center | 1 | align=center | 4:21 | Davenport, Iowa, United States | |- | Loss | align=center | 3–2 | Jerry Bohlander | Technical Submission (armbar) | UFC 16 | | align=center | 1 | align=center | 10:23 | Kenner, Louisiana, United States

Fight of the Year (1998).
Loss
align=center
Frank Shamrock
Submission (armbar)
UFC Japan

| | align=center | 1 | align=center | 0:16 | Yokohama, Japan

For the inaugural UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
Win
align=center
Tony Fryklund
Submission (rear-naked choke)
rowspan=2
rowspan=2
align=center
align=center
rowspan=2
Won the UFC 14 Light Heavyweight Tournament.
-
Win
align=center
Todd Butler
TKO (submission to punches)
align=center
align=center

| |- | Win | align=center | 1–0 | John Lober | Submission (arm-triangle choke) | Extreme Fighting 4 | | align=center | 2 | align=center | 1:12 | Des Moines, Iowa, United States |

References

References

1. "Kevin Jackson".
2. "Kevin Jackson {{!}} National Wrestling Hall of Fame".
3. Fighting, M. M. A.. (2009-05-01). "UFC 14 winner Kevin Jackson to coach at Iowa State".
4. "Kevin Jackson's Freestyle Wrestling Fundamentals - Wrestling -- Championship Productions, Inc.".
5. "Kevin Jackson - Assistant Coach - Staff Directory".
6. "UFC Olympic Gold Medalist wrestlers".
7. "Kevin Jackson Named ISU Head Wrestling Coach – Iowa State University Athletics Official Web Site – www.CYCLONES.com – The home of Iowa State Cyclone Sports". www.CYCLONES.com.
8. "Kevin Jackson - Wrestling Coach".
9. Gerbasi, Thomas. (2011-10-17). "UFC Encyclopedia - The Definitive Guide to the Ultimate Fighting Championship". DK.

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