Christian Lubenga, 27, passed away in the hospital after his first MMA fight.
Tragically, father and mixed martial artist Christian Lubenga has died following his amateur debut at AMMO Fight League 10. The event took place on March 12 at the Big E in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Lubenga lost the match in the 3rd round via TKO delivered by his opponent Cody McCracken. After the match, he was taken to the hospital and unfortunately passed on Monday.
The death comes as a shock to his family and friends, coaches, and teammates. Lubenga’s gym, Black Wolf Martial Arts, located in Orange, Connecticut, released a touching statement about the fighter’s death:
“We are at a loss of words. This is what a nightmare looks like…. It can’t even be properly articulated with words and on a social media post nonetheless. We wanted to give the family some time to make their own decisions about how to go public with this before we spoke on it out of respect. While we ourselves are grieving and it’s difficult to even type this out we felt it appropriate to take a moment to say a few things.
“Christian wasn’t just any student. Christian was the kind of human who brought life and light into any room he walked into. Christian was our family. We shared laughs, stories, blood, sweat, tears. He’s the kind of person I aspire to be like and I wish more people were like him. Polite, professional, humble, always kind to everyone no matter what. We spent hundreds of thousands of hours together doing the things we were passionate about. Christian was a true martial artist in every aspect of the word and a true warrior. We love you Christian. We all love you.” (h/t Fall River Reporter)
His family awaits the Medical Examiner to perform the autopsy and determine the cause of death.
Lubenga had aspirations to be the next UFC Champion of Congolese descent. He studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, Boxing, and Capoeira at the University of Bridgeport.
In addition to his martial arts journey, Lubenga was a father and graduate student with a Master’s degree in Computer Sytems Analysis.
