MMAweekly's Ryan Bennett Killed in Car Accident

sitnspin · 06-01-2006, 01:07 PM

From MMAweekly:

A tragic car accident claimed the life of our dear friend and founder of MMAWeekly on Wednesday 5/31/2006 while traveling with his family. While driving to St. George, UT the tire blew out on his car, causing the vehicle to roll. Ryan was killed instantly.

Ryan's wife, Tonya, is still in surgery and two of his children are still in the hospital, while his two youngest have checked out fine.

Our prayers and blessings are with the Bennett family at this terrible hour in their lives. This is a great loss to the MMA community. And, the loss of a great friend to many. Please keep Ryan's family in your prayers.

SWIBC · 06-01-2006, 01:14 PM

that is just horrible. My heartbreaks for his family especially his children, I lost my father @ 21, but these poor kids are much to young.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
MMA has lost a great spokesman for the sport.

A classy move by UFC to post the news and sending their condolences

angryjonny · 06-01-2006, 01:24 PM

Oh my gosh...I don't even have words to express how horrible this is. I will keep the Bennett family in my prayers. RIP Ryan...you will be dearly missed.

AikaImmortal · 06-01-2006, 01:31 PM

I have no idea what to say.. it seems surreal.. just the other day I was looking forward to getting to see K-1 on PPV which he was set to announce and last night I was watching an MMA event that he did commentary on.. and now hes no longer with us.

LastExit34 · 06-01-2006, 03:38 PM

Wow.....just wow.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

RIP Ryan...your passion, love, and hard work for the sport will never be forgotten.

rapidresults · 06-01-2006, 04:05 PM

This totally blew me away when I found out about this. Mmaweekly.com is the first site I look at in the mornings and I have been listening to his radio show 5 days a week for the past 2 years. I even went to his website this morning and everything was cool then around 11:10am which 10 minutes past the time he is suppose to be on I went back to his website then I see Ryan Bennett 1972-2006. Its just crazy because my wife and I listened to him just yesterday. He was a good man and really loved his family and mma. This should really show how precious life is. God Bless

Thrash13 · 06-01-2006, 05:20 PM

I was definitely caught off guard by this news. He was an MMA fan, but more importantly, he was a father and husband. My heart and prayers go out to his family. I hope his wife and kids make it through ok.

R.I.P.

angryjonny · 06-01-2006, 09:18 PM

The Fight Network put together a memorial video about Ryan for anyone who is unfamiliar with him.

Memorial video

Unknown · 06-01-2006, 10:06 PM

Wow... I still am suprised at this. My heart goes out to to his faimly.

Mulla · 06-02-2006, 06:53 AM

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Bennett family

RIP Ryan

SmashingMachine · 06-02-2006, 08:51 AM

Wow, that is really tragic...my heart and prayers are with his family.

angryjonny · 06-03-2006, 12:07 AM

100 members have visited the site today and still only 11 (now 12 because of this one) replies.

SeikanJudanski · 06-03-2006, 07:56 PM

Rest in Peace Ryan.

Anti-Sanchez · 06-04-2006, 07:51 PM

Very sad indeed. I don't normally read "The Arena" forum so I had not heard about the accident. I just saw the tribute on the IFL show tonight.

I liked listening to Ryan do the WEC matches on HDNet. I always thought he did a good job. My prayers go out to his family and I hope his wife survies so she can take care of those kids.

subgenius · 06-07-2006, 04:04 PM

I just read about this on Mike Swick's blog from his MySpace.com website. I also rarely read the Arena section and almost started a new thread. I am glad I looked here first.

Here is what Mike Swick had to say:

Today is a sad day. I got the call this morning that MMA commentator, radio host, and longtime friend of mine Ryan Bennett died while traveling with his family.

While driving to St. George, UT the tire blew out on his car, causing the vehicle to roll. Ryan was killed instantly. Ryan's wife, Tonya, is still in surgery and two of his children are still in the hospital, while his two youngest have checked out fine.

Ryan commentated all of my WEC fights and from that we became friends. He has stayed in touch with me throughout my career and often had me on his Radio show at MMAWEEKLY.com. He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and he is always smiling and saying good things about people. It is so sad to think that I will not be able to talk to him ever again. This makes you reconsider taking life for granted. You never know when tragedy will arrive.

There is also a link to the memorial video and a link to where people can donate to Ryan Bennet's family. I won't post the links, but they can be found at MMA Weekly and Mike Swick's blog pages...

This is truly sad. We can definately all agree on one thing for a change. No matter how much we argue and yell at each other and insult each other or whatever, something like this makes you stand up and pay attention to life a little more.

DrumzCT · 06-10-2006, 07:04 PM

Man my internet has been out and I just got it fixed at my apt. and I saw this on MMA Weekly. This is really terrible. Just when Fight Network picks up MMA Weekly and starts talking about satellite radio and weekly recap mma tv shows. There was about to be such a huge jump in MMA media and no one deserved to be at the helm of that more than Ryan. I met him at the Fight Network show in Toronto and he was such a nice guy.

My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends. I bet Trigg is having a really tought time with this two cause they were very close. This just sucks.

The-Iceman-Chuck-Liddell · 01-24-2007, 06:48 PM

i trained in st george for a while. did this guy train? i went to XFC (Xtreme Fight Club) well my sympathy goes to him and his family its always sad when a good person dies

nurspec · 03-15-2008, 10:06 AM

My heart goes out his family,i just hope the wife pulls through for those kids or the tragedy will be doubled .sad sad news and puts all our petty arguments
in perspective.Love life people you just don't know when your time will come.

giguer · 03-15-2008, 02:03 PM

R.I.P. Ryan

Gloverz93 · 09-17-2008, 08:52 PM

Im a new member to the forums and i didnt know Ryan but after hearing about the accedient i had to give my deepest apoligies..!
RIP. Ryan you will be missed by many