Former trainer to Randy Couture and Vitor Belfort, Shawn Tompkins passes away at 37

The UFC put on one of its most exciting fight cards of the year with UFC on Versus 5 tonight in Milwaukee, but the event was overshadowed by the sad news that renowned mixed martial arts trainer Shawn Tompkins passed away earlier on Sunday. Tompkins was just 37.

Multiple fighters confirmed the passing and the UFC made an announcement concerning Tompkins' death during the live show on Versus.

The reaction from fighters has slowly begun to trickle out:

MMA fighter John Gunderson today told MMAjunkie.com that Tompkins "didn't wake up," but he was still unclear on the details surrounding his passing.

A native of Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada, Tompkins spent many of his recent years in Las Vegas as the head coach at Xtreme Couture. He worked with former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Randy Couture. In recent years, Tompkins also worked the corner of fighters like Wanderlei Silva, Forrest Griffin and Vitor Belfort.

In 2009, Tompkins left Xtreme Couture to move his team just a few miles away in Las Vegas to the TapouT Training Center. He was currently working with UFC fighters Mark Hominick, Chris Horodecki and Sam Stout. Tompkins was married to Stout's sister Emilie.

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Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Former-trainer-to-Randy-Couture-and-Vitor-Belfor?urn=mma-wp5899

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