Reports Of MMA Fighter's Death Greatly Exaggerated

Fight fans were saddened yesterday to learn that veteran slugger Kim Leopoldo had passed away at the age of 41. So young! The news was especially hard on Leopoldo since he was under the impression that he was still alive.

A posting on a popular MMA message board announced the death of "Kimo" and that quickly spread to "the blogs" and then actual newspapers, which went ahead and reported it without question. (But it was "confirmed" by TMZ!) However, Leopoldo did not have a heart attack in Costa Rica as reported, probably because he had an important court date in California on the same day and I guess he didn't want to miss it. Being alive is very time consuming.

So Kimo had to come out of "hiding" yesterday to prove he wasn't dead—just trying to kick a drug habit—and maybe spin his near-death experience into a resurrection of his fighting career. To give you some idea of how long he's been at this, Leopoldo fought in UFC 3, which practically makes him a vampire.

By the way, the New York Daily News and TMZ simply removed the stories from their websites, rather than issue corrections for the benefit of possibly confused readers. I think that's how the "Mikey dying of Pop Rocks and soda" story got started.

Despite recent reports, UFC veteran Kim "Kimo" Leopoldo is not dead [MMA Junkie] Leopoldo not dead, contrary to reports [Yahoo]