Former UFC fighter Corey Hill dies unexpectedly at 36

Corey Hill, a one-time contestant on the reality series "The Ultimate Fighter" who became best known for overcoming a gruesome leg injury to return to mixed martial arts competition, died Thursday near his Florida home, the UFC confirmed.

Hill was 36.

Pat Miletich, a former UFC champion and a member of its Hall of Fame, had been coaching Hill and said he had immense potential as a fighter. He said Hill's illness began innocently enough, but developed into pneumonia and cost him his life.

"The crazy thing is, my mother passed away in April from pretty much the same thing," Miletich told Yahoo Sports Thursday. "It just started with a cough. And then it got into the lungs. It was this fungal pneumonia thing. At one point, I think only farmers would get it from being in those damp corn silos and stuff like that.

"He had some bad luck, man. There were some bad turns in his life, but he was a gifted guy. He stayed positive throughout. As strange as it sounds, I always felt he would be the one guy out of that group [on TUF] who would win the 155-pound championship. He just had some bad, bad luck."

Hill broke his leg in a Dec. 10, 2008, bout in North Carolina against Dale Hartt. It was a ghastly injury and his foot was moving in the wrong direction. But he worked hard and a little more than a year later, he recovered sufficiently to return.

He told Yahoo Sports in 2009 about the arduous rehabilitation and his belief that despite doctors telling him he would never be able to fight again that he'd make it back.

I had these people who are very smart, who went to college and have advanced degrees and have become doctors, and they're supposed to always be right, and they're telling me that there's no way I'm going to fight again. But I was like, 'Whatever. I'm not listening.' I was scared, I'll admit that. There were a lot of negative things going on, but I wasn't only scared, but I was stubborn.

And I said, 'This is not going to be the end of Corey Hill. It's not going to end like this.' Doctors are telling me I'm not going to fight. Well, I don't know if they say that for motivational reasons, or if they really mean it at the time, but it was great motivation for me to hear doctors say, 'You'll never do this. You're never going to fight.' I was like, 'Oh yeah? Watch me.' I'm a competitor and this was my dream. I wasn't quitting that easily.

Miletich said Hill was a hard-nosed fighter whose can-do attitude spilled over to the entire team.

"He would change practice with his mentality," Miletich said. "He had great enthusiasm, and that laugh, I'll never forget it. And with that big, booming voice of his, he got the guys motivated around him. In this life, there are certain people you can't forget and Corey's one of them for me. That smile, that laugh, that voice. I'll always remember him."

Hill was 6-9 in his MMA career and 1-2 in the UFC.

He was the father of three children. Funeral services are pending.