UFC Heavyweight Shane Del Rosario clings to life on life support machines on Friday morning at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California. Del Rosario suffered sudden cardiac arrest at his home Tuesday morning, and while doctors have revived his breathing and heart functions, they have been unable to get any brain activity in the fighter.
The 30-year-old Del Rosario underwent a procedure with the Arctic Sun Temperature Management System which is designed to regulate his body temperature to the mid-90s, and it was hoped that such procedure would help stimulate his brain activity, but it was unsuccessful. The procedure was a last gasp attempt to save Del Rosario’s life.
Longtime trainer Colin Oyama posted the following on his facebook page: “The Del Rosario family and I, and all of our family, teammates and friends, thank everyone for their prayers and support. God has a different path for Shane to take and instead has chosen to take him away from us to be with his forefathers in heaven.”
Del Rosario was born and raised in Orange County, Calif. He graduated from the University of California-Irvine, before going full-time into fighting. He was 11-0 as a professional with King of the Cage, M-1 and Strikeforce before he was injured in an April 2011 car accident when he was rear-ended by a drunk driver.
During his 14-month absence Strikeforce was folded by Zuffa, and Del Rosario was one of the Strikeforce fighters retained by the company and brought to their primary MMA show, the UFC. After recovering from herniated disks Del Rosario entered the UFC in May 2012, only to lose to Stipe Miocic. He followed that up with another loss to Pat Berry.
Del Rosario was scheduled to fight at UFC 168 in Las Vegas. Last Friday the UFC announced that he could not fight Carlos Augusto Filho due to injury as he had hurt his ribs in training and would not be ready for the December 28th fight.
This week’s news comes as a shock to all involved, and we at LWOS have our thoughts with his family, friends, fans, and all affected by this tragedy.
