Mark Henry’s Intro To MMA Mark Henry grew up in New Jersey and had a rather normal life. He participated in sports and particularly in boxing and wrestling. Henry started boxing when he was 12 years old and would continue to train through his time in the army. It was sort of just by chance that he started coaching in MMA. One day he was taking his son to wrestling practice at Elite Wrestling in New Jersey. The coach and owner Steve Rivera knew that Henry had boxing experience and came to him with a proposition. Steve trained a fighter named Frankie Edgar that needed a boxing coach and asked if Mark could train him.