Priest criticises ‘high risk’ combat sport

Former Tipperary hurler and manager Fr Tom Fogarty has said he fails to see how fans could “justify” being entertained by Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) following the shocking death of one of the sport’s rising stars.

Joao Carvalho, a 28-year-old Portuguese MMA fighter, died in Dublin where he suffered head injuries competing at the Total Extreme Fighting event in the Dublin National Arena.

“In my view sport is meant to be about entertainment and enjoyment and I fail to see how anyone can derive enjoyment from watching another human being beaten to death.

“For the life of me I can’t see how anyone could even attempt to justify that,” Fr Fogarty told The Irish Catholic.

Acknowledging that he was “not familiar with the rules and regulations” of MMA, the priest admitted he was “speaking as somebody looking at it from a distance”.

“From what I have heard in the media it would bother me,” he said.

Distress

“When do you draw the line if somebody is injured and clearly in distress, where do you draw the line, when do you call stop?” he asked.

Fr Fogarty, who is currently President of St Patrick’s College, Thurles, said he would “personally discourage” any young person “from getting involved” in MMA.

“I certainly think that encouraging young people to play that type of, what I call, high risk sport has to be addressed.

“The risks are too great. If you are getting a pounding in the face or on the head it cannot be good for you,” he said.

Fr Fogarty also said he had witnessed “huge change” in the GAA over the past decade.

“Now you need to be physically strong as well as skilful to compete at top level and that is the way sport seems to be going.

“There seems to be more of a push now to be developing the body and for the body to be getting stronger,” he said, adding that this “seems to be very prevalent in rugby too”.