![\"Suman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/e7980824-6ff5-46f2-b84c-70da3203816f.jpg\")
<\/p>\nParamedics who rushed to the scene treated Suman Mokhtarian (33) who had suffered gunshot wounds to his torso, but could not save him\n<\/p>\n
Suman Mokhtarian who was a prominent Australian figure in the sport, was shot to death in Sydney\u2019s west at around 6pm local time on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The professional fighter turned coach died at the scene of the shooting at the intersection of two residential streets in Riverstone<\/p>\n
Paramedics who rushed to the scene treated Mokhtarian (33) who had suffered gunshot wounds to his torso, but could not save him.<\/p>\n
Mokhtarian had survived a previous attempt on his life in February last year, news.com.au reports.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Suman Mokhtarian<\/p>\n
News in 90 Seconds – Thursday, October 9 <\/p>\n
On that occasion, the gunman, disguised as a food delivery driver, fired several shots at him outside the Australian Top Team gym he owns with his brother Ashkan.<\/p>\n
In April, New South Wales police forced cancellation of upstart regional promotion Dark Matter Fighting Championship’s inaugural event, citing a potential gang-related murder attempt. Mokhtarian was set to coach several athletes on the card.<\/p>\n
Emergency services also received two reports of vehicles ablaze in the area around the same time. One of the vehicles was a red Audi, which police say match the vehicle description of the shooter. Police are investigating if the incidents are related.<\/p>\n
Suman had appearing on the hit TV show The Ultimate Fighter in 2018 when he revealed that both he and his brother were heading down the wrong path before finding MMA.<\/p>\n
![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0558c778-cb40-47e1-9472-2c2b1724fb0f.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Police at the scene of the shooting (news.com.au)<\/p>\n
\u201cI got into the sport through my brother. I had a lot of friends who trained in MMA in Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother had a few problems, and he was having a rough time, and he wanted to prove me wrong by saying he could become a fighter,\u201d he told a cast interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cI doubted him, and look where we are now. I took him to his first gym to try and put him in his place and he was motivated to prove me wrong, and he did, and his motivation got me into it.<\/p>\n
His brother Ashkan \u2018The Assassin\u2019 Mokhtarian who has been out of the sport since 2019, had been arrested on a string of drug charges that derailed his MMA career.<\/p>\n
Ashkan was arrested in 2023 and has been in jail since.<\/p>\n
However, Police Superintendent Jason Joyce said it was still too early to tell if the attack was linked to organised crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very brazen and it\u2019s a shame that this has happened in our community,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we do believe it\u2019s a targeted attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart goes out to the family of this victim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice established a crime scene and commenced inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the incident,\u201d a police statement read.<\/p>\n
However, on Thursday morning, 2GB reported that police are treating the shooting as a targeted gangland execution.<\/p>\n
Police Superintendent Joyce told 2GB\u2019s Ben Fordham show that the shooting was a \u201charrowing experience\u201d for those in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a number of lines of inquiry that we\u2019re still following,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mokhtarian, a prominent figure in the Australian MMA scene, was the co-founder of the Australian Top Team and a former UFC athlete.<\/p>\n
He was quickly knocked out by Sodiq Yusuff in his UFC debut in December 2018 before losing a unanimous decision to Seung Woo Choi in December 2019 in what would be his final MMA fight.<\/p>\n
Mokhtarian would never compete in MMA again, battling several injuries and setbacks. While his competitive career was on hold, he continued to coach fighters at Australian Top Team alongside his brother and fellow UFC star Ashkan.<\/p>\n
Fellow fighters paid tribute to Mokhtarian on Thursday morning as news of his death spread.<\/p>\n
Tyler Diamond, who appeared on the same season of \u2018The Ultimate Fighter\u2019 wrote on social media: \u201cHe had a genuinely good heart. This is sad to see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramedics who rushed to the scene treated Suman Mokhtarian (33) who had suffered gunshot wounds to his torso,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-199817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}