Former UFC Star Hangs Himself After Pleading Guilty To Child Porn Charges

A 44-year-old mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges died in an apparent suicide Saturday while he was detained in an Iowa prison, police said.

Travis Fulton was discovered unresponsive inside his cellblock at Linn County Correctional Center in Cedar Rapids at around 3:58 a.m. by wardens who were performing a routine cell check, the Linn County Sheriff's Office said in a statement released Saturday. According to police, Fulton was believed to have hung himself.

Jail staff and ambulance personnel provided medical aid to Fulton before he was transported to Mercy Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5 a.m., the sheriff's office said.

An investigation into the death is ongoing, and the State Medical Examiner will perform an autopsy on Fulton's body, according to the police statement.

No further details regarding Fulton's death were disclosed by authorities.

Fulton — nicknamed "The Ironman" — had been detained in the jail since his arrest on Feb. 19, local newspaper The Gazette reported.

He was indicted for making two girls under age 18 engage in sexual behavior that he photographed over the span of several years, according to court records obtained by the outlet. The abuse happened between 2013 and 2020 for one case, while the other occurred around November last year, the indictment said.

Fulton agreed to plead guilty Friday to two of the four charges against him — sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography, according to court papers filed hours before the former UFC fighter was discovered unresponsive.

He attempted to get a minor under the age of 18 to "engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct" with a camera, ESPN reported. Fulton also knowingly possessed or attempted to possess images depicting a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct on a flash drive.

Additionally, Fulton had been accused of receiving and attempting to receive child pornography via "interstate foreign commerce," the ESPN report said, citing court documents.

Following his guilty pleas, a federal judge canceled a trial date and scheduled a plea hearing for July 23.

Fulton was also facing separate charges for allegedly attacking a woman in September 2019, causing her to sustain "fractures to her jaw, nose and palate," court records showed. A trial for the charges, which included causing willful injury, was scheduled for Sept. 7 at the Black Hawk County Courthouse, according to the Gazette report.

Fulton held the MMA record for career professional fights with 320 bouts, according to ESPN.