MMA vet 'Grizzly' Clifton dies of apparent heart attack

Super heavyweight Ross "The Grizzly" Clifton, an eight-year veteran of MMA best known for his TKO loss to Ken Shamrock at "Wargods" in February, has passed away from an apparent heart attack. He was 32 years old.

Clifton's former trainer, UFC veteran Cal Worsham, said the Rancho Cordova fighter was found dead by his wife Friday morning. Clifton was reportedly watching TV in a recliner chair when the wife went to bed Thursday night.

Official details of Clifton's death were not readily available.

Clifton ran a small MMA school called "Grizzly's Den" in nearby Cameron Park and last fought in July, losing by TKO to Rick Vardell at Gladiator Challenge: Total Recall.

"He was a jovial teddy bear inside of a grizzly's body," Worsham told MMAWeekly on Saturday. "He was just so funny and such a character in the way you'd never expect from a giant of a man like that. He's absolutely going to be missed."