MMA Fighter Dead After Mt. Pleasant Fight

The 30-year-old MMA fighter who died shortly after a fight Saturday in Mount Pleasant had been part of a planned reality show that followed budding Mixed Martial Art fighters through rigorous training at an Augusta, Ga., fight studio.

The Charleston County Coroner on Monday will perform an autopsy on Tyrone "Teestea" Mims, who collapsed and died Saturday evening shortly after completing a fight at the Omar Shrine Center in Mount Pleasant.

"We don't have a cause of death yet," said Deputy Coroner Dotty Lindsay. "He had just finished a fight and then a short time later became unresponsive."

Mims was one of a handful of figthers set to compete Saturday night, according to the Augusta Chronicle. Trainers and the reality show producers plan a noon Monday press conference in Augusta to discuss the death.

“We have no idea what caused it,” Rich Seidlitz, the show's production manager, told the newspaper. “It would be wrong for us to speculate. We’re going to wait for the autopsy.

The show is accepting donations for the fighter's family on its website, www.gaboysgritsnglory.com.

“Tyrone left behind five children," Seidlitz told the Augusta Chronicle. "His mother is working to take care of them, but she just lost her son. It’s absolutely terrible.”

The fight was broadcast live over the Internet, but the stream was apparently cut when emergency help was called for Mims.

It appears the fighters were pitching the reality show to a cable network. Titled "Georgia Boy's Grits n' Glory," the show follows amateur fighters as they train at a "small backwoods gym" in Augusta, according to a news release promoting Saturday's fight.

A trailer posted on YouTube shows intense physical training and hard partying at the fight club. On Sunday, a post on the group's Facebook page sent condolences to Mims' friends and family.

Mims' death is the second fatality at a MMA fight this year. Dustin Jenson died in May after an unregulated South Dakota fight, according to reports. In June 2010, another fighter was killed in a South Carolina MMA bout.

The sport, which was approved by the South Carolina Legislature in 2009, is a full-contact combat sport that blends a variety of martial arts techniques.