Justin Eilers gunned down: Mixed martial arts fighter Justin Eilers was shot and killed late Christmas night in Nampa, Idaho. Eilers' manager and friend, Monte Cox, confirmed his death to MMAWeekly.com Friday morning. According to various reports, Canyon County Sheriff's Officers responded to a domestic disturbance call in the 4600 block of Happy Valley Road in Nampa at 10:44 p.m. on Thursday. When officers arrived on the scene they found that an adult male, later confirmed as Eilers, had been shot and killed. James Robert Malec, 48, was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder. Details surrounding the incident have not yet been revealed by police, but sources close to Eilers indicate that Malec is the boyfriend of Eilers' mother. He and Eilers reportedly got into some sort of argument and Malec allegedly produced a gun and shot Eilers. Emergency workers attempted to revive Eilers, but were unsuccessful. The incident is still under investigation by the Canyon County Sheriff's Office. Eilers – 19-7-1 as a professional MMA fighter – fought for the Ultimate Fighting Championship in late 2004 where he won his Octagon debut before exiting the promotion following a three-fight skid, one of the losses was to then UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. He would later fight for World Extreme Cagefighting a couple of times before losing an EliteXC heavyweight title bid to Antonio Silva earlier this year in July. Justin Eilers was 30 years old at the time of his death. FROM MMA WEEKLY
Gun > Martial Arts Sorry to hear about Eilers. He main evented a UFC event against then-champion Arlovski. Weird how many former UFC guys are dropping like flies.
I just read about Eilers. Man, that sucks. He was a decent fighter, but he was also a very cool dude. I know I've told the story here numerous times about hanging out with a bunch of Militech fighters a few years ago at the Hoffbrauhaus in Vegas watching the Superbowl, and Eilers was one of them. While a bunch of fighters were there, Pulver, Sylvia, and especially Eilers and Ben Rothwell were ridiculously friendly, sitting at our table (Hoffbrauhaus has these long picnic like tables), drinking beers, eating, and watching the game. This was before TUF and the big UFC explosion, so I guess they were just happy to have been recognized. As a fighter, Eilers may have been limited, but he never half assed it and always made for an entertaining fight. He either looked good winning, or made someone else look good losing. Man, that's some shitty news to hear. TFK
How long before the news media tears into the UFC with the piling up amount of deaths occuring lately, the same way they did to the WWE after the Benoit incident? Is the UFC not big enough yet to warrant such attention? This is worrisome how in only a span of about 3 months, 3 former UFC fighters have either been murdered or committed suicide. Surely they'll think MMA is likened to Boxing where the amount of punishment(head shots) the fighters take is the cause of their problems.
These deaths are not drug related ,so I doubt it.Shit happens,just like in any other sport athletes have there demons and personnal issues just like we do.
Doesn't look good if 3 former employees of a company all happened to die in a span of 4 months. Just saying..
Evan Tanner went into the desert deliberately unprepared, expecting the very worst. He liked living on the edge.
