UFC fighter Justin Leven and his wife were found shot to death in their Laguna Niguel condominium as a possible murder/suicide. One of Justin’s last fights was with Evan Tanner who also died when he wondered off into the dessert with no supplies. Justin was only 28 years old.
Veteran fighter Justin Levens and his wife, Sarah McLean-Levens, were found dead in their Southern California home on Wednesday in what authorities are saying was an apparent murder-suicide, according to Orange County sheriff’s officials via the Associated Press.
“I worked with Justin for a period, and we remained good friends after,” Ken Pavia, who formerly represented Levens, told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “He loved to compete and was a great fighter. Justin was one of those guys that it seemed suffered from a lot of bad luck in life.
“I think the default setting for a lot of fighters is to have demons inside, and it seems like his demons escaped. It saddens me that Justin succumbed to it. He was an intelligent, charismatic guy and a good kid. In hindsight, you wish you could have done something about it.”
Tragically, Levens is the second former member of the IFL’s Condors who may have taken his own life. Onetime teammate Jeremy Williams died on May 5, 2007, of what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
I’m sure these types of tragedies are due to constant blows to the head while fighting in this sport, ones brain can only take so much until it starts to deteriorate. I for one am against these types of sports because to me, hitting someone to unconsciousness isn’t a sport.
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December 18th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I will admit that I do enjoy watching MMA on occasion. These guys know what they’re getting into, and nobody holds a gun to their head to get them into the cage. I won’t deny that it’s incredibly brutal, though.
Being a mixed martial arts fighter is a very high-stress career choice, I’m sure. Much like the music business, or any other form of entertainment or sport, it’s next to impossible to make it anywhere near the top. Musicians, writers, professional wrestlers, and the like rarely succeed to any great degree in their business. The same goes for MMA, except the toll is MUCH greater for these guys. A lot of them are fighting small-time local shows, making just a few bucks. But the price they pay is exactly the same as the guys on the top. The blows to the head, the stress on joints, muscles and bones…..it’s unbelievable that a person would go through so much just for a tiny chance to make it big. Granted, the top guys in the business make a shitload of money. But everyone under them…..it just can’t be worth it. They’ll all retire in their 40’s at the latest, with irreparable damage to their bodies. Man, I’m really feeling bad about watching this stuff now, lol.
It’s sad that this guy felt the need to do this. I hope this doesn’t start some weird trend.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
There is evidence that blows to the head, usually concussions as found by the NFL, do end up contributing significantly to this behavior. Then again, he may have had an experience similar to Chris Benoit, who did steroids.
December 18th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
My first thought from just reading the head-line was “Shit. Another athlete gone crazy on HGH or steroids”. The stress involved in this career, plus whacked out hormones would cause anyone to get a little violent. It’s a shame.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
It truly is a shame the length ppl will take for fame and fortune, although it is unknown if this guy was on any drugs but the Chris Beniot murders were absolutely heart breaking.
December 18th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hmm… I enjoy MMA and it is a sanctioned sport. They do have much more strict rules about performance enhancing drugs than baseball.
A lot of people who get into brutal sports come from poor circumstances, I don’t know if we can really compare Chris Benoit to this since steroids are allowed and acting is encouraged in wrestling, which is not a sport. Steroids do not cause this behavior on their own. It’s easy to pick on MMA but take a look at some scientific data (that has already been done) and compare how many blows to the head happens in an average MMA fight versus an average boxing match.
This guy wasn’t very good and he was a big pussy to take this kind of action.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
All I can say is, another talented MMA athlete gone ! RIP Justin
M. Kuromatsu
Shugyokan Dojo
www,alljapankarate.com
December 19th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I smell a made-for-TV movie!
That was bad…..
December 19th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
To classify mixed martial arts as something as simple as two dudes trading blows, Rocky-style, until one falls, is a gross oversimplification. To subsequently deny it credit as a sport is silly. It blends skills from wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu, and a variety of fighting styles including karate, tae kwon do, kickboxing, muay thai, and others. How many of those do you find in the Olympics?
Remember that fights can be stopped any number of ways – submission (”tapping out”) due to chokes and jointlocks, submission due to strikes, referee stoppage (to prevent unnecessary injury), corner stoppage (for the same reason), injury stoppage (for instance, a cut above the eye that obscures the fighter’s vision). And you can’t overlook the fact that a large percentage of these fights “go the distance” and are decided by referee decision.
Boxing, hockey, and football are riskier to ones neurological well-being than MMA. from http://bjsm.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/bjsm.2007.044891v2:
“During the 635 professional MMA matches, 300 of the 1,270 athletes sustained documented injuries with an injury rate of 23.6 per 100 fight participations. Most common reported injuries were lacerations and upper extremity injuries. Severe concussion rate was 15.4 per 1,000 athlete exposures, or 3% of all matches. No deaths or critical sports-related injuries resulted from any of the regulated matches during the study period. Age, weight, and fight experience did not statistically increase the likelihood of injuries after controlling for other covariates.”
December 19th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Did you guys see any of the ‘Fight for the Troops’ event? It was brutal. One dude didn’t tap when a guy had an arm bar on him and his entire arm, from the shoulder down, got gumbied. Another guy broke his own leg when he kicked a dude and it got blocked.
December 19th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Dave: Thanks for the stats, very interesting.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:14 pm
This has very little to do with MMA,if anything at all. please note that a gun was used to commit this crime, not physical bodily force. Mr. Levens had a history of domestic violence, documented in court as early as 2002/2003, but also in previous relationships which were not documented. He also faced other criminal charges in orange county in addition to domestic violence.
The problems of this case may have been compounded by drugs, but the drugs are not an adequate explanation. the explanation is much deeper. At any rate, it is unfortunate that domestic violence continues to occur at such rates in our society – probably a lot of people knew that something was wrong with Mr. Levens well before this tragic event but did not know how to help or intervene.
December 21st, 2008 at 12:20 pm
PLEASE EXPRESS MY SYMPATHY TO THOSE LEFT BEHIND. WE WEREN’T IN THE ROOM WHEN THIS TRAGEDY OCCURRED BUT WE STILL QUESTION WHAT LEAD TO GUNPLAY. I STILL THINK HANDGUNS SHOULD BE TAKEN OFF THE STREETS. PEACE TO YOU JUSTIN.
December 26th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
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December 28th, 2008 at 9:11 am
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S.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:56 am
This topic is quite hot on the Internet at the moment. What do you pay attention to while choosing what to write about?