(Props: Red-33)

Time flies, brother. It’s already been two years since the MMA world was blindsided by the tragic news that Charles “Mask” Lewis — founder of the ubiquitous TapouT brand, provider of financial support and encouragement to untold numbers of MMA fighters — died in a car wreck. Since then, Lewis has been inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, his beloved company has been sold (not the smoothest transition, apparently), his estate was screwed with by Orange County, and the drunk driver who caused his death was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Of all the Mask tributes floating around the Internet today, we have to give it up to Jonathan Snowden’s BloodyElbow interview with Lewis’s former TapouT business partners, Dan “Punkass” Caldwell and Timothy “SkySkrape” Katz.” Some highlights are after the jump.

(Kirby will likely be making license plates for the next 13 years.)

The 53-year-old two-time drunk driver accused of causing the death of TapouT co-founder Charles "Mask" David Lewis Jr. was found guilty by a jury yesterday of one felony count of vehicular manslaughter by unlawful act with gross negligence while intoxicated and a sentencing enhancement for causing great bodily injury.

Lewis died in the March 2009 crash that split his Ferrari in two.

Jeffrey David Kirby of Costa Mesa faces up to 13 years in state prison when he is sentenced February 4 in Santa Ana, Calif.

As predicted, five-time UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell and TapouT founder Charles Lewis Jr. will be inducted into the UFC’s Hall of Fame this week, according to a press release published last night. From UFC.com: