Fans worldwide have seen Dan “The Beast” Severn enter the athletic stage and perform at a level unknown to most people.
Severn has traveled the world showing off his abilities in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling, mixed martial arts and as a professional wrestler.
It all started for Severn as an eighth-grade basketball player in Montrose, sitting on the bench when a flu epidemic hit the school. A few of his friends asked if he’d fill in at a weight class for the wrestling team, so the team wouldn’t have to forfeit.
“I wrestled twice, lost twice and ended the season sitting on the basketball bench,” Severn said. The next year he went out for wrestling, where he finished with an uninspiring 13-14 record. But that wasn’t indicative of things to come, as he finished his high school wrestling career with eight national high school records, two national championships, two state titles and was a three-time All-American.
Severn was as dominant a wrestler as the Flint area has ever seen, finishing his high school career by winning his last 100 matches over his junior and senior years while helping Montrose High become the first school in the state to win back-to-back titles in Class C.
Of Severn’s 100 consecutive wins, (those in which the other team didn’t forfeit his weight class), all but one ended in a pin. His record for pins (112) stood as a U.S. national record until 1992.
“I loved football more than wrestling,” Severn said during a 1992 seminar in Durand. “I was a three-sport athlete in high school, wrestling, football and track. I found out I could control my own destiny in wrestling, but in football I had 10 other guys on the field and I couldn’t control their destiny. If they didn’t want to win as bad as me, l couldn’t do much about it.”
His older brother, David, helped bring him into wrestling. Together they became the first brother combination to win state titles in the same year. Dan then combined with his brother Mark the next year to become the second tandem. He was one of four Severn brothers who wrestled at Arizona State. Dan won three Pac-10 championships, was a two-time All-American and compiled a record of 127-11-1 between 1977-1980. His 127 wins stood as a Sun Devils’ school mark for eight years, and is still fifth on the list. He still owns the ASU record for most pins, 73.
Severn also holds the mark for most pins in a season (25) and is second in career winning percentage (.917). Three Severns show up on the career victories list for ASU. Dan is fifth at 127, Dave is ninth with 117 and Rod is tied for 17th with 103. Combined they have more than 70 national and international titles. They include 13 national AAU championships from 1982-94 and a gold medal at the 1985 Canada Cup. He was an alternate for the 1980 and 1984 Olympic wrestling teams.
Severn gained new popularity in 1994 when, at age 40, he stepped into the octagon for the first time for the Ultimate Fighting Championships, where he was given his nickname “The Beast” by football Hall of Famer Jim Brown. He is the only three-time UFC champion and is a member of the UFC Hall of Fame. For his career in mixed martial arts, Severn compiled a record of 70-13-7 through last August.
“I started late in life,” Severn said of his mixed martial arts record. “I became the oldest MMA guy in the U.S. after winning my last match over Skip Hall. He was 61 and he retired after our match.”
Severn recently celebrated his 4,000th athletic competition, but doesn’t see himself hanging around like Hall. “I’ve lived a lifetime of setting records and breaking records,” Severn said. Severn stays busy putting on seminars for law enforcement, making speeches at schools and updating his web site, dansevern.com.
“Two words come to mind,” Severn said when asked to sum up his athletic career.
“I’ve made a difference and I’ve made an impact. Even as I teach a class, I motivate people to make that difference and impact people’s lives.”
“A lot of people talk. To me talk is cheap. I’m not going to promise you anything I can’t come through with.”
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