The Dustin Jenson MMA Tragedy. May 2012

**PizDoff** · Posted On: 6/04/2012 11:29pm

Ring Wars 74 - Hayden Hensrud vs Dustin Jenson

A 26-year-old amateur MMA fighter named Dustin Jenson died last Thursday, after suffering a seizure following a triangle-choke loss to Hayden Hensrud at a Ring Wars event, May 18th in Rapid City, South Dakota. Jenson was participating in his fifth fight, and had begun competing in the sport less than a year ago. Funeral services were scheduled today at First Wesleyan Church in Sturgis. Rapid City Journal has more details:

Dustin Jenson, 26, was participating in full-contact fights at a RingWars event May 18 when he tapped out — a signal to end the fight. According to his mother-in-law, Violet Schieman, Jensen then watched the next two fights before going to the locker room area, where he suffered a seizure.

A tribute and donation link.

**PizDoff** · Posted On: 6/04/2012 11:31pm

Will the Dustin Jenson Tragedy Teach Us Something?

For those who are not aware, a young man named Dustin Jenson died this week subsequent to a 5/18 unregulated amateur MMA bout in South Dakota in which he tapped to a triangle choke. Shortly after, he had a seizure, was hospitalized, had surgery to address cerebral edema, and sadly died 12 days later. This is such a sad story on many levels. My thoughts and prayers go out to Dustin's family, friends and training partners. Also to the coaches and promoter. Nobody wishes this to happen on their watch.

I do want to share some thoughts as I believe this sad event highlights our sport's dark shadow...the amateur ranks. I had a few conversations with Steven Marrocco and Nick Lembo of the New Jersey Athletic Control Board about this tragedy. Here is a compilation of thoughts I shared with them. I am sharing with you because I feel this is a discussion that needs to be taking place within our sport.

Dustin Jenson fought in Ring Wars four times since January 27; that's 4 fights in less than 4 months.

Full thoughts at SamboSteve's blog. Check it out.
http://nymmanow.blogspot.ca/2012/06/...-teach-us.html
Stephen Koepfer
Founder, Coalition to Legalize MMA in NY

**danharr** · Posted On: 6/05/2012 6:58pm

Damn I just took for granted the pro-rule after a knockout you're suspended for 3 months. I never even thought about the amateurs this is so wrong.

**sambosteve** · Posted On: 6/06/2012 7:48am

Thanks for posting my editorial. For those interested, I will be on The MMA Show with Mauro Ronallo on Thursday to talk about this sad event and amateur MMA in general. Show airs at 2pm. Podcast available after that.
http://podcasts.thescore.com/program...-mauro-ranallo

**Tameshiwhaty?** · Posted On: 6/06/2012 7:57am

Never good to hear these, all our hopes and prayers for Dustin's family and gym. Hopefully it will bring the problem to light.

**hpr** · Posted On: 6/06/2012 9:45am

I wonder if he had some kind of a pre-existing condition like epilepsy? He was in the triangle for a pretty long time but I've seen a lot worse during sparring.

Anyway, RIP dude :(

EDIT: Missed SamboSteve's blog post. The previous KO would definitely count as a pre-existing condition..

***WhiteShark*** · Posted On: 6/06/2012 2:13pm

When will governments understand that creating black markets puts everyone at risk?

***jnp*** · Posted On: 6/06/2012 10:45pm

I'm deeply saddened to read this. I'm no fan of excessive regulation in any sport, but basic guidelines that keeps fighters safe need to be adopted at the pro and amateur level by state athletic commissions in all states that allow MMA so this never happens again.

**Syphilis** · Posted On: 6/07/2012 6:33am

Sad to hear this :(

Twice I have fought against guys who trained out of his garage with their brother as coach. (I found out after the fact, one of them was 3-1 even, fighting for NAAFS.) In the end both of them were woefully unprepared.

For my second amateur fight in Kentucky, the commission was making up the rules on the spot, and asked my coach, who they recognized as a pro fighter if these rules were pretty good in a way they themselves were uncertain of them... (when it first got legalized in KY with commission and all -they had unregulated fights a few years earlier). So now in Kentucky you can knee (and kick) to the head standing in amateur. The only thing you can't really do in KY is elbows. Heelhooks etc, everything is allowed though we immediately realized the commission there was bullshit and had no idea what they were doing. I haven't fought in KY in two years so I don't know if the rules are still the same.

I would really like a unified Amateur system; not only because it would be safer, and matches would be better if you can actually find something about your guy. (One of my fights was against a guy who had a ton of fights, but just claimed to be 4-0, while in reality he was like 6-4 or something - way more experienced than the 4 fights he claimed, but you could not find any records. They've never checked my ID, just my fighters pass. I used my Ohio amateur license to register in Kentucky (because I was foreign at the time and did not really want to bring my passport into KY lol rednecks.)

**Matt Phillips** · Posted On: 6/07/2012 7:02am

It is extremely important to note that Dustin was not struck in the fatal match. Essentially, this could have happened at NAGA. If you have been KO'd in competition or sparring, protect yourself and take 8 or more weeks off from striking AND grappling entirely.

Train safe.

RIP Dustin