By Natalie Caula
ncaula@abcnews4.com
AUGUSTA, GA (WCIV) -- Friends and family of Tyrone Mims are still trying to grasp the sudden loss of their beloved fighter as his death remains a mystery.
"He's been fighting all his life. It's hard to make sense of it all. We're never going to be able to make sense of it all," his cousin Chris Cole said.
Cole was in Charleston Saturday night when Mims went into the cage at the Omar Shrine Temple in Mount Pleasant.
"I knew something was wrong into the second round. I could just, looking in the cage, looking at him and knowing he wasn't himself," Cole said.
His coach and the owner of the Augusta Fight Club Chris Hauser, who knew Mims as ‘Teesta" says everything started out normal. He says they'd been training for the last three months.
"‘Teesta' was owning it and he got taken down and at that point of him being taken down, he threw one solid punch up. The next punch was limp and he wasn't out he wasn't knocked out or asleep but seemed incoherent. The referee stopped the fight at that point. We got him out of the cage. They took him to the back," Hauser said.
Hauser says he recalls Mims complaining of chest pain. He says the other coach iced his chest and asked him where it hurt when Mims collapsed.
Authorities say the 30-year-old man was rushed to the hospital but died at approximately 9:27 p.m.
On Monday, Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said there was still no clear cause of death for the fighter. Wooten said more testing will take about 6-8 weeks where microscopic exams will be performed and tissue samples taken.
The Augusta Fight Club physician who has examined Mims said he was a perfect specimen and in great shape. He said Mims did everything correctly to prepare for the fight.
"He talked about this for weeks on end. That's all he's talked about to everybody," Hauser said. "He was just happy. He was where he wanted to be. He was where he wanted to be."
Tyrone Mims training for his first fight (provided)
Tyrone Mims in the ring, training (provided)
