There are superheroes, and there are heroes.
Fremont’s Mark Coleman played the larger-than-life first role as a champion wrestler and Ultimate Fighting Championship star.
He lived the second one.
You probably saw the headlines last month.
Coleman — who at 59 still appears on loan from a comic book, with his bar-bending muscles and a nickname ( The Hammer ) to match — was life-flighted to a Toledo hospital after saving his aging parents from a house fire.
This week, I got the rest of the story — the story of two heroes, a man and his beloved late dog.
A March miracle.
“If Mark would not have been there that night,” said his 80-year-old mom, Connie, “there’s no way we would have gotten out.”
I checked in with the UFC legend as he continued his recovery amid an outpouring of love, telling me his lungs — which took on more than a fatal amount of smoke and were not functioning on their own for three harrowing days — are approaching full strength.
“They’re about 90 percent,” Coleman said. “A little scratchy still. But I’m up and feeling great. I’m so blessed.”