Fertitta would like to aid regulation in Ireland
Lorenzo Fertitta: “We would love to be able to sit down to work with the authorities in Ireland and the UK so that, not just our events, but allof the events are properly regulated.”
Portuguese fighter Joao Carvalho died on Monday, due to injuries sustained in a fight with Charlie Ward at Total Extreme Fighting 1 in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday night. Two separate investigations into the death are under way, one by the government Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and another by the national police.
Every death is a tragedy. But competing is sports is dangerous, as is never extending your body. Cheerleading in the USA killed 42 between the fall of 1982 and the spring of 2007. 28 people are believed to have died running, in marathons alone, in the USA alone, from 2000-2009. In 2005, four runners died, in a single event, the Great North Run half marathon in the UK. Over 1,500 people are known to have died boxing.
Various male grandmothers have called and editorialized in Ireland and the UK to ban the sport. Given that there have been only 11 deaths in MMA since its inception 23 years ago, and just three in regulated bouts, the ban stance is not rational.
In an interview with Luke Thomas for MMA Fighting, ZUFFA COO Lorenzo Fertitta said he would welcome the opportunity to work with Irish authorities to regulate the sport.
That has always been our mantra. We run towards regulation,” said Fertitta, as transcribed by SportsJoe.
We would love to be able to sit down to work with the authorities in Ireland and the UK so that, not just our events, but allof the events are properly regulated.
I don’t know exactly what happened in that event, everybody is still trying to figure that out. But that’s the reason we want regulation, so there are standards, so it’s the same everywhere and we would certainly think that that would be a good idea.