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MMA/Boxing RIP Thread


wandshogun09

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Elias Theodorou, Rumble Johnson and Stephan Bonnar all within a few months and all in their 30s/40s is awful.

So sad. Bonnar’s not seemed right for a while to me but I hadn’t seen him pop up for a long time. Always liked him since TUF 1 though. On a cast full of nutcases, Bonnar seemed like one of the more normal and sound during that first season. And then of course the final with Forrest Griffin put them both on the map. Never quite worked out for him after that but he was a fixture during that boom period from 2005-10ish. He’ll always probably be remembered more for his high profile losses to Griffin, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva and even Mark Coleman. But he also some cracking forgotten fights with Keith Jardine and Krzysztof Soszynski along the way. My favourite memory though, is probably his argument on TUF with Diego Sanchez over asparagus.

Sanchez: What are you my Dad?

Bonnar: I don’t know if I’m your Dad for sure…but there’s a very good possibility.

RIP ‘American Psycho’. 

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Very sad news.

Was always a big fan of Bonnar, he was never a great fighter but he was an engaging personality and was in some great fights. That first TUF cast is so important to the history of the sport and none so more than Bonnar.

It's a shame Bonnar never took some kind of PI type role within the UFC like Forrest Griffin because the UFC clearly held him in high esteem at one point, but life seemed to have been tough on Bonnar in recent years.
 

RIP.

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You know what really annoys me? Dana White and the UFC giving it the whole "UFC family" spiel. 

It's all well & good making tear-stained statements now the guy is gone, but where was the help for him in the years past? The dude and his family lost absolutely everything in a house fire and a fundraiser managed to net him a paltry $10,000, with the biggest donation coming from Tyron Woodley.

Meanwhile Dana is handing fucking "Nelk Boy" $250k for a laugh. What the fuck has Nelk Boy ever done for the UFC? Seriously?

You know what? It's kind of sadly poetic that we've seen one of the flag bearers for the early UFC pass away like this, because I think this is just the first of the really eye-catching names. The UFC has always boasted that no fighter under contract to them has died in the cage, but Bonnar was seemingly suffering from an enlarged cavum septi pellucidi, which is a common feature of the onset of CTE. 

Anyone who saw his interviews or videos on YouTube the past year or so surely could see that there was something not right with the guy. He ended up with a lot of medical issues resulting in reported opioid addiction, which led to complications with a serious staph infection that was found on both sides of a fractured vertebra.

He was in hospital with that for over a month, lost two and a half stone in weight, and was unable to walk without assistance. 

The reason for that injury? Because when the UFC and MMA was done with him he had to take gigs doing pro wrestling at shitty little shows to pay the bills, where he ended up breaking his wrist and back, which kickstarted the staph infection, mobility issues, weight loss and drug addiction. 

Before he died he was apparently working as a medical equipment salesman. 

With the amount of former UFC fighters we're seeing hitting these shitty little bare-knuckle boxing circuits and suchlike to make money, we can absolutely expect to see more situations like this. 

Sure, Bonnar didn't die in the cage, but let's not pretend that it wasn't the sport and the lack of support and compensation from the billion dollar company built on the backs of guys like him that didn't kill him. 

Again, fuck Dana White. And fuck the UFC. How long before these fighters realise that they need to work together to get fairly fucking paid?

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