Photo: M-1 Global

Heavyweight prospect Guram Gugenishvili was killed in a car accident Sunday in his native Georgia. M-1 Global , Gugenishvili’s longtime promoter, today confirmed the news; details of the accident were not disclosed. Gugenishvili was 28 years old.“He was a great athlete and a kind, open-hearted person,” the organization wrote in a brief statement A physically gifted fighter with a powerful grappling base, 6-foot-5 Gugenishvili claimed multiple M-1 heavyweight titles while compiling an 11-0 record in his first two years as a mixed martial artist. The Georgian will perhaps be best remembered for his trilogy of bouts with American Kenny Garner , who scored stoppages of Gugenishvili in their last two meetings.In April, Gugenishvili returned from an injury-induced 16-month hiatus to punch out Tony Bonello under the Inoki Genome Fight banner in what would be his final bout. According to M-1 Global, Gugenishvili was expected to compete again for IGF before the end of the year and would have returned to M-1 competition in 2015.