Amateur MMA Fighter Tyrone Mims dies after South Carolina bout
Tyrone Mims, an amateur MMA fighter from Augusta, Georgia collapsed after a bout called “Fight Night at the Point 6” which was held by Conflict MMA Promotions and took place at the Omar Shrine Center at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina this past Saturday night.
According to the Charleston County Coroner the 30-year-old was taken to the hospital where he died. The coroner says the cause of death is unknown and an autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning.
The o?fficial comments about Mims’ death have not come from his trainer, nor the promoters. Richard Seidlitz, a production manager for a reality show titled “Georgia Boys: Grits n’ Glory,” that featured Tyrone Mims, has been providing most of the information.
According to Seidlitz: “When he went into the fight, he was doing great. He was pretty much dominating the fight and partways through, I think it was the second round, he looked like he just got completely gassed. The ref asked all the clarity questions to make sure the fighter was ok. He answered perfectly fine. He smiled, he said ‘yeah I’m just tired, that’s it.'”
However, officials stopped the fight at that point and after Mims left the cage, his condition seemed to deteriorate. He was examined by doctors and EMTs but Seidlitz says Mims just kept getting worse: “He didn’t take any severe blows that would have done this. His team members all said the same thing about his training. There was no reason to be concerned whatsoever and they would not have let him fight if they thought that something was wrong with him. They all take this seriously and they are a family.”
Seidlitz said that only 2 or 3 of the 12-13 fights scheduled were completed and that the promoters, Athletic Commission and fighters met to discuss what had happened and decide how to handle the rest of the night: “The Athletic Commission decided it would be in the best interest of the fighters and the fans to stop the fights for the night. The announcer let everybody know that one of the fighters was in serious condition and had everybody take a moment of silence and then explain the situation that the fights were over and apologize that everybody had to leave early without seeing the rest of the fights but the crowd was extremely respectful.”
