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 failed neck 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 the U-Japan event in November 1996, taking a submission victory by forearm choke over Mark Hall in a rematch. Just one month later, Frye entered the UFC's Ultimate 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 faced Mark Hall for the third time in his career, but this fight was even shorter, with Frye getting a takedown and an Achilles lock for the give up in 20 seconds. In the finals, Frye faced striker Tank 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 a rear naked choke, to take the title of Ultimate Ultimate 96 Champion, his second UFC Tournament Championship. Hall would later claim that Don Frye and manager Robert DePersia convinced him to throw 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. Referee John McCarthy later wrote in his autobiography Let's Get It On!: Despite his success in MMA, Frye retired from the sport after winning the