It’s not the most comfortable thing to contemplate when you’ve got a fight coming up, but Matt Mitrione had a personal connection to Tim Hague, the fighter who died due to injuries sustained in a boxing match this past weekend in Edmonton. Hague slipped into a coma not long after being knocked out by Adam Braidwood, and died on Sunday. Mitrione fought Hague at UFC Fight For the Troops II in Fort Hood, Texas, back in 2011.
The two had kept up over the years, and Mitrione said the news of his death really got to him — particularly as he was making final preparations for his own fight.