McGregor: I helped train a guy to kill someone

Portuguese MMA fighter Joao Carvalho died due to injuries sustained in a fight with Charlie ‘The Hospital’ Ward at Total Extreme Fighting 1 in Dublin, Ireland on Apr 9, 2016. Carvalho lost via TKO in Round 3.

Ward is, like UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, a member of the famed SBG Ireland, training under coach John Kavanagh.

Both fighters were 1-1 at the time of the fight, and it did not appear to be a gross mismatch. Although there is no regulatory body in Ireland for MMA, the event followed the guidelines set by SAFE MMA, a UK-based non-profit that handles medical regulation. There were three doctors and paramedics present.

Conor McGregor was cageside watching his teammate. In a cover interview in the September’s Men’s Health magazine, released to the Daily Mail, McGregor was asked about the death.

“How do I feel?” he replied. “How would you feel?”

“It’s f***ed up,’ he said, finally. “I wasn’t just watching that fight. I helped train a guy to kill someone, and then someone wound up dying.

“This is a f***ing dangerous game. People call it a sport, but it’s fighting. I’m just making sure it ain’t me. And that’s f***ed up.’

“Damn,” he adds after a few minutes silence. “I still can’t believe that kid is dead.”

The issue goes on sale Thursday, August 4.

Mixed martial arts is a combat sport and combat sports can be dangerous, even when reasonable precautions have been taken. Our hearts go out to the family, team, and friends of Joao Carvalho.

Every death of an athlete is an extraordinary tragedy. And too, the danger in mixed martial arts has to be viewed within the larger context of death in sports.

American high school football is dangerous. Eleven high school football players died in 2015 alone. Seven athletes have died from injuries sustained while competing in the Olympics – one runner, one cyclist, a boxer, one speed skater, one downhill skier, and two lugers.

Boxing has recorded nearly 1,500 deaths since its inception in the 1700s. Auto racing has killed countess drivers, and spectators are not immune. A single accident in 1955 killed approximately 60 spectators, and the driver. 110 school children in Japan died playing Judo in the last 30 years, and hundreds have suffered catastrophic injury.

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.

Cheerleading in the USA killed 42 between the fall of 1982 and the spring of 2007.

Mixed martial arts is not immune. Eleven people are now believed to have died from injuries sustained during MMA competitions from 1993 to the present, including Carvalho.

Douglas Dedge • March 16, 1998 • Kiev, Ukraine • Unregulated • Chief emergency room doctor attributed death to “severe brain injuries.” • First MMA death in the modern era. • Dedge is reported to have passed out in training previous to the fight, and is believed to have had a preexisting medical condition.

Korean identified only as Lee • May 12, 2005 • Samsong-dong, South Korea • Entirely unregulated bout took place in a bar. • Cause of death was heart attack.

Sam Vasquez • October 20, 2007 • Houston Texas • Cause of death was subdural hemorrhage due to blunt trauma of the head, following a KO loss in the third round • First death in a sanctioned MMA event.

Michael Kirkham • June 26, 2010 • Aiken, South Carolina • Regulated bout • Cause of death was subarachnoid hemorrhage of the brain • Kirkham lost his previous fight on April 24 by TKO; Dr. Joe Estwanik believes “this could have been second-impact syndrome.”

Mike Mittelmeier• April 27, 2012 • Bolivia • Unregulated bout allowing face kicks to grounded opponent; there was no ambulance standing by. • Mittlemeier got kicked in the head while attempting a leg lock, illegal under the Unified Rules. • Cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage.

Dustin Jenson • May 24, 2012 • Rapid City, South Dakota • Unregulated bout • Jenson tapped without appearing to take any severe blows. • Cause of death was subdural hemorrhage resulting from blunt force trauma to the head.

Tyrone Mims • August 11, 2012 • Mount Pleasant, South Carolina • Regulated bout • Autopsy results were inconclusive, with no evidence of a concussion or brain trauma detected, no drugs or alcohol detected by toxicology tests. “(Mims) might have had an irregular heart because of some electrical dysfunction,” said Coroner Rae Wooten. “That obviously isn’t seen after death. Once that’s completed, there’s no evidence of that…. There’s just nothing here that explains his death.”

Felix ElochukwuNchikwo, fought under the name Felix Pablo Elochukwu • April 7th, 2013 • Port Huron, Michigan • Unregulated bout • According to the Michigan coroner’s office, there is “no evidence” that the fighter died from trauma he sustained during an unregulated mixed martial arts match.

BootoGuylain • 24 June 1984 – 5 March 2014 • Johannesburg, South Africa • Unregulated bout • Death was a result of complications related to the swelling of the brain.

RaminZeynalov • 29 March 2015 • Azerbaijan • Unregulated bout • Death was a result of brain hemorrhage.

There are going to be more deaths in mixed martial arts.

MMA competition can, like countless other sports, lead to fatality. As such, safety precautions must be adhered to rigorously. There will undoubtedly be an investigation, that can come to a conclusive investigation, but at the outset, it can be said that TEF appeared to be promoting responsibly in terms of fighter safety.