Sherry Schmidt accident: Rising female MMA athlete from New Jersey passes away in tragic car accident

Some tragic news was released today regarding New Jersey-based strawweight prospect Sherry Schmidt.

According to Jake Noecker of CagesidePress, the 29-year-old Schmidt passed away at the weekend.

“Absolutely devastating news out of NJ. MMA fighter Sherry Schmidt passed away according to her gym and teammates. Having met Sherry a handful of times, she was an absolute gem of a human who perfectly embodied a fighter.

I’ll post fundraising/donation opportunities when available.”

It was confirmed by Schmidt’s friend Ryan Kim Cafaro that the strawweight prospect was killed in a tragic car accident. Further details of the accident itself have been hard to come by.

Cafaro’s Tweet also included a link to a GoFundMe page to raise money for Schmidt’s funeral. The page is attempting to raise $5000 and thus far has reached just over $2000.

Several people have also paid tribute to Schmidt on Instagram. One notable post came from Dead Serious MMA, who promoted the strawweight twice in 2022.

“The Perez family from Dead Serious MMA Promotions would like to send our condolences to the Schmidt family. We had the honor of watching Sherry @ohhsherry_ fight for us. We lost a true warrior but heaven has gained a true warrior rest in peace baby girl.”

---

Sherry Schmidt accident: who was the strawweight prospect?

Sherry Schmidt had not made it as far as the UFC before her tragic death this weekend, but she had garnered plenty of popularity in her home state of New Jersey and on social media.

Schmidt’s Instagram page, for instance, currently has 17.7k followers, a remarkable number considering her relatively low profile in MMA.

The New Jersey-based strawweight prospect’s last MMA bout came in March. She was defeated via TKO by Paige Wilcox early in the third round.

Watch an interview with the late Schmidt regarding her MMA debut below.