According to reports by ABC 4 in Charleston, South Carolina and The Post and Courier, the Charleston County Coroner’s office has confirmed a 30-year old amateur MMA fighter died Saturday night in Mount Pleasant. Tyrone Mims of Augusta, Ga., was taken to Medical University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m. ET.
According to Deputy Coroner Dottie Lindsay’s comments to The Post and Courier, Mims had just finished his fight and was experiencing still unknown health problems. While being monitored at the venue, the Omar Shrine Center at Patriots Point, Mims became unresponsive.
Charleston County EMS Director Don Lundy told The Post and Courier paramedics transported a patient from the “Fight Night at the Point VI,” to the hospital at 8:36 p.m. ET where he eventually died. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
The amateur mixed martial arts event was being streamed online, but was stopped and the event itself canceled.
Mims’ death marks the second in MMA in 2012 – both among amateur fighters – and the second ever in the state of South Carolina. He is the fourth MMA fighter to die in the U.S. in close proximity to his final bout.
Dustin Jenson died in May of this year after an unregulated bout in South Dakota. While a coroner confirmed Jenson did not die from injuries sustained in his final fight, he had carried into that bout untreated injuries incurred from previous unregulated bouts that took place just prior to his last match.
In June of 2010, Michael Kirkham also died in South Carolina at “Confrontation at the Convocation Center” event at the USC Aiken Convocation Center in Columbia. His last bout and Mims’ were regulated by South Carolina State Athletic Commission. It is not known at this time what kinds of medical screens he received prior to his competition.
MMA was approved by the state legislature and began regulation by the athletic commission in 2009.