UFC middleweight Josh Samman reportedly in coma
UFC middleweight Josh Samman is in critical condition and fighting for his life after being found unresponsive early Friday morning in south Florida, according to a report by the Tallahassee Democrat.
A spokesperson for the UFC said the promotion is aware of Samman's hospitalization and has been in touch with his management team.
Samman, 28, was found unresponsive alongside his roommate and friend Troy Kirkingburg, who served as an announcer for the Samman-owned regional promotion Combat Night. Kirkingburg was pronounced dead on arrival, according to the report.
"I think it has taken a lot of the community and his friends by shock, completely unexpected out of the both of them," a local friend, Joe Blackwood, told the paper. "Both are great, great people who do a lot for the community and are well-known in the community.
"It has completely blindsided everybody."
As of Saturday morning, representatives from the Broward County Sheriff's Department have not responded to several messages left by MMA Fighting.
Samman (12-4) is a UFC middleweight and former cast member of The Ultimate Fighter 17. He compiled a three-fight win streak in the UFC immediately following the show, including a spectacular, come-from-behind head kick knockout that won 'Knockout of the Year' honors for MMA Fighting in 2014.
On the heels of a recent two-fight losing streak, Samman was expected to fight Oluwale Bambose on Dec. 9 at UFC Fight Night 102 in Albany, NY.
Samman is a published writer for SB Nation, as well as several other websites. He also is an author whose autobiography, The Housekeeper: Love, Death & Prizefighting, released in April. The revealing memoirs documented the fighter's struggles with substance abuse and the tragic 2013 passing of Samman's girlfriend Hailey Bevis, who died in a single-car accident.
"I would ask people, what did you get out of the story," Samman told MMA Fighting in May. "And for me the final thing that I got from the story of me being a brash, just being a kid thinking I was indestructible, and the world just bringing me to my knees in the most dramatic fashion. When stuff like that happens, change is bound to happen.
"And so I was already kind of an intense person before. So you take an intense person, you put them through a tumultuous situation and put them through the meat grinder, and what comes out the other end is going to be really good or really bad. And I wanted it to be really good. Sometimes people get lost in their tragedy, and sometimes it catapults them."
MMA Fighting will continue to update this story as information becomes available.