2008 a year of tragedy

The end of any calender year is a time for celebration. Accomplishments and hardships of the previous year are discussed and honored. The largest MMA promotion, the UFC, usually ends the year with their best fight card. However a cloud will hang over the festivities this year.

Two former UFC fighters have died in less than two weeks. Couple that with Evan Tanner sudden demise, and the slew of graphic injuries in an event meant to raise money for the casualties of war and this year doesn't appear quite so jolly.

Today it was announced that Justin Eilers, a former UFC heavyweight who fought Andrei Arlovski for the title at UFC 53, was shot and killed in a domestic disturbance in Idaho. Nine days ago another former UFC fighter, Jeremey Levens, was found dead with his wife in a suspected murder-suicide. In September Evan Tanner, the former UFC middleweight champion, died due to exposure when his motorcycle ran out of gas in the mountains. How did things go so horribly wrong for these men?

All sports have sudden tragedies that shock fans, the media, owners and athletes. Sometimes they happen in an stars prime, like Sean Taylor. Or they occur to an unknown player trying to make the team, like Richard Collier of the Jaguars. Perhaps these events are simply the random violence of human existence pouring over into the entertainment distraction that is sports. But for MMA and the UFC three tragic deaths in six months is a statistic that no organization would ever like to see repeated.

Athletes fade in and out of the public consciousness. Their dominance as heroes quickly disappears into the banality of anonymity and 'normal' lives. Alone and in a world unlike any they have existed in, they often fade away in tragic manners with no one really caring till the day their death is announced. The same is true for major sports, NFL players are cast off like dead weight, just look at the case of Mike Webster. Perhaps this latest news is proof that MMA really is a sport like all the others, where past athletes go off into the unknown only to return to our minds when the date of their wake is announced.

The UFC has an opportunity to show that they will honor those that gave, even if ever so briefly, to their organization. A memorial to these men, to remind the viewing public of their humanity as oppose to the tragedy they departed under, would be fitting.