among 18 people shot during the incident<\/a>. He was later taken off life support on Monday and died at a local hospital.<\/p>\nPederson had recently moved from Minnesota to Austin to start a new job and pursue his dream of becoming a professional mixed martial artist. He formerly owned a moving business where he would employ other athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andy Grahn, one of Pederson\u2019s former MMA coaches in Minnesota, said the fighter quickly made an impression among his peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe showed up six days a week, one to two hours a day,\u201d Grahn said. \u201cJorge was always winking and smiling, and always had jokes and [was] always coming up with a plan to make a viral video.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grahn said Pederson\u2019s personality stood out just as much as his work ethic.<\/p>\n
\u201cJorge brought the comedy and the fun to the hard training, and the guys loved that,\u201d Grahn said. \u201cThey really miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin police said the shooting happened early Sunday morning at Buford\u2019s Bar on West Sixth Street at around 2 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pederson fought for his life after the shooting, Grahn said, and believes fought for his life after being rushed to a local hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure he held on,\u201d Grahn said. \u201cI believe one of his friends made it down there to hold his hand when he passed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grahn went on to say that he was one of the first Pederson confided in about making the big move to Austin. Grahn said his former student was seeking a new adventure, and compared Austin to feeling like Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
10th Planet Austin publicly posted that Pederson was planning with their head MMA coach, Angel Cruz, his first professional fight in his home state this coming May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grahn said Pederson planned to split his training between Austin and his hometown as he prepared for his professional debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was going to train down in Austin and come back like once a month to get ready,\u201d Grahn said.<\/p>\n
Now, that dream will never come true.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the last thing I think about before I go to sleep, and the first thing I think about when I wake up,\u201d Grahn said. \u201cI can\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the days since the shooting, memorials honoring Pederson and the other victims have appeared outside Buford\u2019s Bar on West Sixth Street \u2014 a tribute to a life his coach said was taken far too soon.<\/p>\n
Pederson’s community at the martial arts school “The Academy MN” plans to host a celebration of his life on March 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Andy Grahn said he’ll remember Pederson as a dedicated athlete and friend with big dreams. AUSTIN, Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-517641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517641","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=517641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}