Credit to UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta who didn’t shirk the question when asked about the topical and sensitive issue of mixed martial arts regulation in Ireland.
The subject has been the most discussed topic in the Irish MMA community since the tragic death of Portuguese fighter Joao Carvalho following an event in Dublin last weekend.
Carvalho passed away on Monday night, less than 48 hours after being defeated by TKO in a main card bout at Total Extreme Fighting, and the lack of proper regulation in Ireland is a cause for concern for many.
The Irish Sports Council currently doesn’t recognise MMA as a sport and, therefore, it doesn’t receive any government funding that could standardise such important aspects of MMA events as medical staff and protocols.
UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was asked about the issue during an interview with Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com and he was hopeful of the opportunity to sit down with the powers that be in order to ensure that MMA can begin receiving the correct recognition and regulation on this side of the Atlantic.
“That has always been our mantra. We run towards regulation.” Fertitta said.
“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 all 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.”
