Shawn Tompkins Death Deeply Impacts Chatham-Kent MMA Community

Shawn Tompkins - Photo from TeamTompkins.ca

When Shawn Tompkins passed away August 14 from a heart attack in his sleep, it sent a ripple of shock through the MMA community, including in Chatham-Kent.

For many in the local MMA community, including Chad Laprise, Jesse Gross, Chris Kimmerly, and Chris Clements, Tompkins was an inspiration and served as a foundation for their careers in one of the world’s biggest sports.

“The news of the death of Shawn Tompkins hit me harder than I ever expected,” Redemption MMA owner and coach Chris Kimmerly said. “He was my inspiration to become a coach. Everything I do and teach is loosely based around what I learned from him.”

Only weeks before his death, local professional MMA fighter Chad Laprise stayed with Tompkins in Las Vegas, where Tompkins has coached since leaving Adrenaline MMA in London, Ontario, in preparation for a fight he won at the WFCU Centre in Windsor,

“Shawn was the guy who made me take that next step in MMA,” said Laprise. “I met him about two years ago in London at a seminar that I attended. After we were done training Shawn took me aside and told me how much potential I had, and that started it.”

In terms of the growth of MMA in Ontario and Canada, Tompkins has been a catalyst, coaching some of the biggest names in the sport including his brother-in-law Sam Stout, Mark Hominick, and Chris Horodiecki.

“He was the first Canadian MMA pioneer and a true ambassador of the sport. His death will leave a great void in the MMA community especially for MMA in Ontario,” Kimmerly said about Tompkins.

“Shawn built this sport in this area and Ontario. He had all the best fighters on the biggest shows. He’s the guy other coaches modeled themselves off,” echoed Laprise.

More importantly to these local fighters and coaches, Tompkins was a welcoming, kind individual who stood up for them, encouraged them, and motivated them to reach the next level both personally, and in the MMA cage.

“I will always remember Shawn forever as an amazing person and the guy who believed in me when I had some doubts. He brought the best out in everyone around him and cared for all,”  Larpise explained about his coach and friend.

“Shawn was a man with a generous heart and always helped me out with any advice on coaching I needed and was always willing to talk with fans,” said Kimmerly.

For Laprise, Tompkins was like an added weapon in his arsenal, and although Tompkins is gone, the lessons Laprise and other MMA fighters across North America learned from the legendary coach and trainer, will live on forever, and have given and will continue to give fighters like Laprise the motivation to reach for their dreams,

“I wasn’t fighting for me, it was for Shawn. I wanted to make him proud of me, show him I was worth all the time he spent of me. I would have died in there before quitting on Shawn. After it was all said and done it took me seeing Shawn believing in me for me to really believe in myself. Shawn taught me I was what was holding me from the next level and he gave me that confidence.”

“He was the best and this world will never have another Shawn Tompkins; he was one of a kind.”