Coach Saul Soliz ‘Godfather of Texas MMA’ passes away at 55 due to COVID-19

Veteran MMA coach Saul Soliz passed away today after “a long hard fight” with COVID-19 (per MMA Fighting). He was 55-years-old. Soliz is best…

By: Tim Bissell | 2 years ago
Coach Saul Soliz ‘Godfather of Texas MMA’ passes away at 55 due to COVID-19
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Veteran MMA coach Saul Soliz passed away today after “a long hard fight” with COVID-19 (per MMA Fighting). He was 55-years-old.

Soliz is best known for coaching pioneering fighters from PRIDE FC and the early UFC. Among those fighters were Tito Ortiz, Quentin ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Mark Coleman, Mark Kerr and Kevin Randleman.

Soliz also coached current Bellator featherweight champion Cris Cyborg and was also a member of Tito Ortiz’s coaching team for two seasons of The Ultimate Fighter.

At the time of his death Soliz, who was known as ‘The Godfather of Texas MMA’, was coaching out of Metro Fight Club in Houston. At that gym Soliz was training Adrian Yanez, who is 4-0 in the UFC after earning a contract on the Contender Series in 2020, and Mana Martinez, who was scheduled to make his UFC debut this Saturday before withdrawing for undisclosed reasons.

After news of Soliz’s passing broke there was an outpouring of messages on social media from fighters who knew him well. Below are just some of those posts.

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Tim Bissell
Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

Email me at tim@bloodyelbow.com. Nice messages will get a response.

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