comment: >
  
  That 1st season of TUF was fucking epic. Lightning in a bottle. Josh Koschek, Diego Sanchez also on that season. I think Chris Lieben had an okay career too. I still remember watching the fight in 2005. Canceled what would have been a first date with my future fiance to watch it. Said I was sick haha
context: Watched the first season of the ultimate fighter he was a bad ass, they all were. Pretty young for a heart attack. RIP >
  
  I've always wondered if the rapid and extreme weight swings that combat sports demand of their participants does damage to their hearts, just because I've personally known several wrestlers and boxers who had heart attacks by the time they were middle aged.  It might be a good idea to rethink weight classes and how weight is measured in a lot of them. >
  
  steroid abuse >
  
  May your soul rest, brother.  Damn, feels like yesterday I was watching him and Forest Griffin in that absolute bloodbath in the Ultimate Fighter Season 1 finale.  One of the best fights in the company's history. >
  
  Brain damage from continual CTE leads to dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system, amount other things.  That causes your heart and many other of the body’s systems to not operate correctly and can lead to premature aging and death.  These guys are having the internal regulatory systems destroyed by the sport they are in.
  That is not even covering PEDs and bulking and cutting stress. >
  
  it's common knowledge and has been publicized his problems with addiction, particularly opioids and alcohol. In his line of work, that's not uncommon. He was also busted for PEDs during his MMA career but I don't think he was a heavy user or that it contributed to his death (just my opinion). We'll probably never know but there's a lot of misinformation in these posts. >
  
  He was a big time hgh guy.  Lots of the guys who take a bunch if hgh when they are young die pretty young. I think it's actually safer today now that science of it has progressed. >
  
  By the looks of it, he was not a huge GH guy but neither of us can prove that. Pharmaceutical grade GH is very expensive for the record and fighters don't use bodybuilding doses of it. Fighters are using it for recovery purposes, similar to someone like Lance Armstrong. 
  I'm not going to get into a debate about the specifics of sport enhancement pharmacology on a news sub, but I can tell you, even though you've probably been led to believe "evil steroids gonna kill you son" it doesn't often work like that. He was very young. Doubtful he was using high doses. Doubtful he was using for years and years on end like bodybuilders. Yes, they probably impacted his health in the short run but not to the point of death. 
  Many many MMA fighters dope. how many others do you see dropping dead at 45? He most likely had a pre-exisiting heart condition (he might not have even been aware of it) and/or was using a prescription drug or drugs that did serious damage to his heart. PEDs don't do a number on your organs so fast and especially not in the amounts most MMA guys use. Even bodybuilders don't drop right away and they are blasting PEDs for years and years on end. 
  He did have a nasty staph infection last year. That could have been a factor. Kevin Randleman had an awful staph infection and he had multiple organ damage from that. I don't think his health was ever the same after. We don't know how badly the staph infection affected Bonnar. I'm also reading he suffered a nasty back injury pro-wrestling very recently. Sounds like medicated with opioids. I'd rather not speculate any further.