# MMA death in Aiken, SC



## ArmorOfGod (Jun 30, 2010)

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/06/28/michael-kirkham-dies-following-pro-mma-debut/

That happened right down the road from my house.  I was semi-planning on going, but I had to give a test that night.
According to Wikipedia, that is the 2nd US death and the 3rd overall in mma.

It is sad.  One of the Augusta, GA schools is doing a fund raiser for the fighter's family.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/19743/fol...ponents-trainer-says-nothing-seemed-afoul.mma

Click there for info about that fund-raiser.

AoG


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## MJS (Jun 30, 2010)

Thats a shame.  I'd be interested in knowing the exact findings, if an autopsy is completed.  Of course, sadly, this will tarnish the MMA world, because now people will have another piece of ammo, to stake their claim that MMA is nothing but a bad thing, with nothing positive being contributed to the martial arts world.


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## ArmorOfGod (Jun 30, 2010)

Yesterday morning the coronier found it to be an accidental death caused by 5-6 blows to the head, which caused brain swelling.

MJS, you are right about what you said.  Everyone in our local newspaper is blasting mma and I bet we will never see it again in this town, which is a shame on many levels.  We have our new convecation center at USCA, which is getting big names in to perform concerts and other events.  Now, mma will not be an option with the heat the center is getting.

AoG


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## MJS (Jun 30, 2010)

ArmorOfGod said:


> Yesterday morning the coronier found it to be an accidental death caused by 5-6 blows to the head, which caused brain swelling.
> 
> MJS, you are right about what you said. Everyone in our local newspaper is blasting mma and I bet we will never see it again in this town, which is a shame on many levels. We have our new convecation center at USCA, which is getting big names in to perform concerts and other events. Now, mma will not be an option with the heat the center is getting.
> 
> AoG


 
Whats interesting, and I dont want to come off as bashing the other events, although I know it'll sound that way, but if we look at the early UFC and the UFC of today, we see alot more in the way of fights stopping early, the ref isright there, if someone isn't intellegently defending themselves, etc.  Yet I dont recall ever hearing about someone dying in a UFC sponsored event.  

I dont know...I'm not a cagefighter...do the other orgs. have all of the same safety nets in place, as the UFc does?


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## Andrew Green (Jun 30, 2010)

MJS said:


> I dont know...I'm not a cagefighter...do the other orgs. have all of the same safety nets in place, as the UFc does?



Rules are set and enforced by the athletic commission, which also assigns referees.  The UFC takes care of the fighters before and after the fight, but they don't have much control during the fight as the referees are employees of the athletic commission, not the UFC.

So you'd have too look at the state athletic commission and its requirements for referee training.  

I think the biggest part of the problem is that it is very easy to become a pro-fighter.   Here is his amateur record:

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/f/E6FA366AC887171D/Michael-Kirkham/

1-3-0, and only one of them was in a sanctioned event, and that was a loss.

He really shouldn't have been allowed to move up to pro competition.


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## MJS (Jul 1, 2010)

Andrew Green said:


> Rules are set and enforced by the athletic commission, which also assigns referees. The UFC takes care of the fighters before and after the fight, but they don't have much control during the fight as the referees are employees of the athletic commission, not the UFC.
> 
> So you'd have too look at the state athletic commission and its requirements for referee training.
> 
> ...


 
I agree, he probably should not have been in the category that he was.  Regarding the refs....I dont know, I'd say they have more control that it may seem.  I mean, it seems to me that they're right there, on top of the action.  If someone was mounted, getting punched and elbowed in the face, chances are, that wouldn't go on for very long, before the fight was stopped.


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## profesormental (Jul 1, 2010)

Here in Puerto Rico, the athletic commission imposed rules that to move to pro in MMA you need to have at least 10 amateur bouts or evaluation by a panel of the commission if you don't have the 10 fight minimum.

Accidental deaths like that are a real tragedy. Although I don't know the exact circumstances, what I do know is that many more people die fishing anyway every year.

But really... it is a tragedy when a life is lost in competition. This is the reason I didn't let one of my fighters fight while being sick. I told him "Exhale all you breath"... and you could hear the wheeze and he started coughing.

In practice he finished the round winded, and he was going against a dangerous boxer, that we knew we knew we could destroy. Yet the risk that he could get gassed in the first half of the first round was too much. If he got hit hard by a fresh fighter, he might've been hurt. Not worth it. Pulled him out, to his protest.

I've seen sick fighters loose bad. Again, not worth it and not a fair fight. It happens.


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## sgtmac_46 (Jul 2, 2010)

MJS said:


> Thats a shame. I'd be interested in knowing the exact findings, if an autopsy is completed. Of course, sadly, this will tarnish the MMA world, because now people will have another piece of ammo, to stake their claim that MMA is nothing but a bad thing, with nothing positive being contributed to the martial arts world.


 
Which is moronic.........you don't see folks seeking to ban marathons because some runner keels over with an myocardial infarcation.  And runners die at greater rates in Marathons than MMA fighters during and after fights.

In the 2009 Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon THREE separate men died in a 16 minute stretch!

http://www.freep.com/article/20091018/SPORTS23/91018016/1318/3-runners-die-in-Detroit-marathon

If that was MMA, the sport would be ban, and folks would be screaming for prosecutions!

All sports have deaths.  About a half dozen teenaged boys are killed every year playing high school football.


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## MJS (Jul 2, 2010)

sgtmac_46 said:


> Which is moronic.........you don't see folks seeking to ban marathons because some runner keels over with an myocardial infarcation. And runners die at greater rates in Marathons than MMA fighters during and after fights.
> 
> In the 2009 Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon THREE separate men died in a 16 minute stretch!
> 
> ...


 
Agreed with you 110% on this!  I know we're talking about death here, but even if we look just at injuries, how many people get injured and have to be carted off the playing field during football, baseball and basketball games.


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## sgtmac_46 (Jul 3, 2010)

MJS said:


> Agreed with you 110% on this! I know we're talking about death here, but even if we look just at injuries, how many people get injured and have to be carted off the playing field during football, baseball and basketball games.


 
Football, in particular, has injury rates far in excess of MMA.

Old news from 1998......but still perfectly applicable.




> High school American football claimed the lives of six young players last year, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Eight additional fatalities were seemingly connected with the game, but might well have resulted from any vigorous activity.





> http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19980610033631data_trunc_sys.shtml


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## Tez3 (Jul 3, 2010)

My daughter is a amateur jockey and works for a very well known trainer, he takes horse to America as well. The death rate of kockeys is high as is the rate of serious injuries. One jockey in Ireland has been in a coma for two years now. Even accidents not in actual races is high, my daughter has had two quite serious ones, one where she was being crushed by a horse rearing in the starting stall ( she was literally hauled out by a quick thinking loader, that the lord for him) and another when she was crushed against a wall by a horse which had his head collar caught in his stall. Her partner is recover at the moment from being thrown, he had concussion and had a nasty cut on his shin which as MA will know is a bad place for healing due to the skin being thin there. There's few top jockeys especially the jump ones, who can't list the numerous bones they have broken over the years....and they are the lucky ones who haven't ended up with broken backs or necks. The sport however doesn't suffer any public down turn in popularity over this, here the Royal Family own racehorses and are often at the races. The human cost is high and I haven't even touched on the cost to horses.


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## sgtmac_46 (Jul 5, 2010)

Tez3 said:


> My daughter is a amateur jockey and works for a very well known trainer, he takes horse to America as well. The death rate of kockeys is high as is the rate of serious injuries. One jockey in Ireland has been in a coma for two years now. Even accidents not in actual races is high, my daughter has had two quite serious ones, one where she was being crushed by a horse rearing in the starting stall ( she was literally hauled out by a quick thinking loader, that the lord for him) and another when she was crushed against a wall by a horse which had his head collar caught in his stall. Her partner is recover at the moment from being thrown, he had concussion and had a nasty cut on his shin which as MA will know is a bad place for healing due to the skin being thin there. There's few top jockeys especially the jump ones, who can't list the numerous bones they have broken over the years....and they are the lucky ones who haven't ended up with broken backs or necks. The sport however doesn't suffer any public down turn in popularity over this, here the Royal Family own racehorses and are often at the races. The human cost is high and I haven't even touched on the cost to horses.


 
Anything equine related is fundamentally dangerous. Something goes wrong while you're on a 2,000 pound animal and there's a very real risk of dying.

I think the problem many folks have with MMA isn't that it's particularly dangerous........we could list 20 different sport related activities, group them in order of most dangerous to least, and MMA would come in 15th or higher, by rate of death and serious physical injury..........the problem many folks have with MMA is a psychological knee jerk reaction, not a reasonable response to real risk.


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## Bruno@MT (Jul 5, 2010)

I know a couple of people who ride horse, and indeed there isn't a single 1 who hasn't broken anything (counting only those who actually do more than trot around in the practice field on a groomed horse).

Among those are one with a broken back, and another who got crushed between his horse and the side of the pool in a military jumping event. He broke all ribs on one side, and severely bruised those on the other side.

Nasty business, riding horse.


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