UFC News: Manager reports that Corey Hill loses battle with pnuemonia

After attempting to fight off pneumonia and suffering a collapsed lung and a heart attack, former UFC fighter and past ‘Ultimate Fighter’ competitor Corey Hill died Friday afternoon at just 36 years of age, according to manager Patrick Reynolds who texted the news to MMA Junkie this afternoon. Junkie also confirmed the news with his former promoter.

Hill, a former national champion wrestler best known for having one of the worst injuries in UFC history, was hospitalized at Tampa (FL) General Hospital with pneumonia and needed a lung transplant, but the lung collapsed. At the time many media outlets — including UFC.com and our site — erroneously reported that Hill had passed away. However, his wife Lauran told TMZ Sports that Hill was resting and still alive. 

Hill was a competitor in the fifth season of The Ultimate Fighter with Nate Diaz, Gray Maynard, Cole Miller, Joe Lauzon and Manny Gamburyan.  He was listed as having one fight, but had claimed privately he had never fought before. Hill, who was 6-foot-4 and fought at 155 pounds early in his career, suffered a broken leg when Dale Hartt checked a low kick he threw in a December 10, 2008, fight in Fayetteville, NC.

His leg literally broke in two, very similar to the injury Anderson Silva suffered in 2013.  He came back one year later, although never returned to UFC.

Hill was an exceptional high school wrestler at Spring Hill High School in Florida, placing at the national tournament, and was a teammate of Daniel Cormier at Colby Community College in Kansas where both were national champions.