10 tragic deaths in MMA

#2 Gilbert Aldana

Gilbert Aldana

Imagine the horror of witnessing one of your loved ones drown to death; that's what Gilbert Aldana's wife and two sons went through. In August 2007, Aldana and fellow MMA fighter Dave Connant and their families went boating in Lake Pleasant, Arizona. Aldana's t-shirt blew into the water and he jumped in after it.

A strong wing, coupled with the icy cold water and Aldana's 6 foot plus, 250 pound frame made the lake seem like it was made of quicksand. Seeing Aldana struggling, Connant jumped in and managed to haul both of them to the boat. He managed to get a hand on the boat, but the wind was pulling them away from Aldana, whose hand suddenly slipped out of Connant's.

Big John McCarthy reminisced about Aldana's heart in an article in FIGHT! magazine. Aldana gassed in the first round of his UFC debut against Paul Buentello but refused to submit. Buentello, dismayed by the amount of punishment Aldana was absorbing, begged him to give up. Unflinchingly, Aldana said "You'll have to kill me first".