Carla Esparza, an Invicta strawweight champion, has dedicated her Invicta 7 match against Claudia Gadelha to Shane del Rosario. "This fight's for him," she told MMA Fighting. "Whatever happens, Shane will be in my thoughts." Del Rosario is battling for his life in the hospital after suffering from a double cardiac arrest. "His body is coming around physically, his organs are slowly coming back online," said Colin Oyama, the fighter's trainer. "Now they are working on getting his brain to kick in. They have begun to raise his core temperature in hopes that his brain will activate after approximately 15-24 hours."
Carla Esparza was distraught by the news of her teammate taking to the hospital after a "catastrophic cardiovascular collapse." "Shane is the one guy everyone in the gym gravitates to," the 26-year-old fighter said. "He's so kind, so warm, such an easygoing guy. He's one of those people in life you come across that no one in their right mind would ever say a bad word about. When he's in the gym, it picks everyone else up." False information was spread on Thanksgiving Day pronouncing Del Rosario as dead, but it was soon clarified he was still alive and fighting. The UFC heavyweight is on life support and his parents were close to giving up but Del Rosario continues living and showing slight signs of recuperation.
"There's hope," Esparza said of Del Rosario's unconscious efforts of grasping on to life. "As along as there's still hope, I'm going to have faith and we're all going to be stronger. I never gave up hope.‘[As of Tuesday] he's off life support, he responded to nurses and squeezed his mother's hand, he's gone in for another surgery. This could still go either way, but there are encouraging signs." Esparza's next fight is a reschedule match with Gadelha, who she was originally going to face off back in January. Gadelha at the time suffered a broken nose in training which left her on the sidelines and almost a year later will have the two ladies meet up again. RELATED: Shane Del Rosario Update: UFC Heavyweight Fighter In Coma Is Off Life Support After Double Heart Attack
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