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5 Male MMA Fighters Who Died In Octagon

MMA is one of the most popular sport worldwide. From long ago, people love combat fights. They enjoy when two fighters in an arena sacrifice their sweat and blood to get victory. In history, some fights were used to be untill death but now rules have changed. Now, there is a proper way to decide a loser or winner by judges. But still at some point , when a mishappening occurs and the victim faces a brutal attack by opponent, he / she losses his/ her life, which is very rare.

Here we have list of 5 MMA fighters who lost their lives in octagon:

Sammy Vasquiz

mma fighters

Vasquez was the first fighter to die from injuries sustained in sanctioned mixed martial arts competition in North America.
The 35-year-old Sammy Vasquez competed in a Renegades Extreme Fighting bout on October 20, 2007 in Houston, Texas, losing the fight in the third round by way of knockout. Vasquez lost consciousness again shortly thereafter and was taken to Saint Joseph Medical Center’s Critical Care Unit.

He was diagnosed with a subdural hemorrhage for which a section of the skull bone was removed to allow the brain to swell without compressing it. Additional swelling led to the placement of a tube to allow cerebral spinal fluid to be drained out of the cavities in the brain to make room for more swelling as well as to allow the monitoring of pressure in the brain. He slipped into a coma for 48 hours until his death on November 30.

Michael K Kirkham


Michael Kirkham competed at Dash Entertainment MMA “Confrontation at the Convocation Center” at the University of South Carolina Aiken campus in Aiken, South Carolina on June 26, 2010. His opponent Carlos Iraburo had Kirkham on the canvas seconds into his pro debut; Iraburo then landed a few strikes to the head of his grounded opponent leading to a referee stoppage forty-one seconds into the match. Kirkham soon lost consciousness and never recovered.

He was pronounced dead two days after the fight. An autopsy report listed the cause of death as “subarachnoid hemorrhage of the brain”. Kirkham had been TKO’d in his final amateur bout on April 24, 2010 leading Doctor Joe Estwanik, the former medical advisor to the North Carolina Boxing Authority to speculate: “This could have been second-impact syndrome”.

Tyrone Mims


30-year-old Tyrone ‘Teestea’ Mims was competing in an amateur mixed martial arts show on August 11, 2012 at Conflict MMA Fight Night at the Point IV in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Tyrone became weak and tired in the second round and the referee stopped the bout because he was unable to continue.

The referee and cage side physician both checked on him and he responded to them that he was fine, just tired. Shortly after being helped back to the locker room by teammates, Tyrone lost consciousness. EMS attempted to revive him at the scene and transported him to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m.A Charleston County Coroner performed a “gross autopsy”, which looks at visible injuries, and failed to reach a cause of death.

The final autopsy results were also inconclusive, no evidence of a concussion or brain trauma were detected, and the toxicology report did not reveal the presence of drugs or alcohol.

Booto Guylain


29-year-old Booto Guylain, a Congolese fighter, experienced a head injury during the third round of his MMA bout against Keron Davies at EFC AFRICA 27 held in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 27, 2014. He was stabilized on-site and taken to the hospital. He died a week later on March 5, 2014 as a result of complications related to the swelling of the brain.

Donshay White


37-year-old Donshay White of Radcliff, Kentucky lost a sanctioned amateur heavyweight bout against Ricky Muse in Louisville, Kentucky by TKO in the second round at an event titled “Hardrock MMA 90” on July 16, 2017. It was his first bout since 2015. After the fight, he collapsed backstage and was taken to an ambulance where he died.

He arrived at Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital with no pulse and was pronounced dead at 9:02 p.m. The cause of his death was ruled as hypertensive heart disease. The autopsy revealed that White was suffering from high blood pressure but was not taking medication for it. Despite this, White passed a physical on the day of the fight.

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