Second death in pro MMA occurs. RIP Michael Kirkham

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


Michael Kirkham died early Monday following his professional MMA debut this past Saturday on a pro and amateur card in Aiken, S.C.

Kirkham, a lightweight nicknamed "Tree" for towering at 6-feet-9, was 30.

Kirkham competed on a Dash Entertainment and King MMA co-promoted "Confrontation at the Convocation Center" event at the USC Aiken Convocation Center, a card regulated by the South Carolina Athletic Commission.

"Obviously our thoughts and prayers are with his family, other than that I have no comment," Sam King, a promoter of Saturday's card, told MMAFighting.com.

According to WRDW in Augusta, Kirkham was transported to Aiken Regional Medical Center from the venue following the fight and was pronounced dead of a brain hemorrhage Monday morning.

Kirkham, who according to his own Facebook page, held an amateur record of 3-3, lost his pro debut by referee stoppage Saturday when he was knocked unconscious by ground and pound strikes.

Kirkham was the captain of his own MMA team and according to his "Fayetteville Independents" teammate John Yox's Facebook page, had "severe bleeding in the brain" and had been kept alive with the help of a machine. A message left on Yox's voicemail was unreturned.

The South Carolina Athletic Commission requires that all boxers and MMA fighters submit an original or certified lab report indicating that the competitor is HIV, Hepatitis B and C negative. Also, the fighter must complete an ophthalmologic (eye) exam as well as a physical by a doctor.

Kirkham becomes the second fighter to pass away due to causes from a regulated MMA fight in the US. The first known death in a regulated event was Sam Vasquez, who died on Nov. 30, 2007 from head injuries on a local card in Houston, Texas. Vazquez was in a coma for 42 days after the fight in October.

The death of a fighter kind of puts Fedor losing into perspective. I also think it's important that MMA fans are actually honest about deaths in MMA, it's put across too often that there's been no deaths in the sport, but that's just not true, and it will happen again. RIP Michael Kirkham.

very sad news,I just finished watching this report on my local news.

The thing that annoys me about all this,as tragic as the news is,is that the fanatical anti MMA people were all out in force making stupid wild claims about how barbaric it is and it's was no surprise at all and was only a matter of time.
This will do nothing to help towards getting it sanctioned in some of the states in the US.

There are deaths nearly every year in nearly every sport in the world from Cheerleading,fishing to full on combat sports.
There are more Fishing related deaths than any sport in the world.
How many lads have dropped dead on the football feild like Marc vivien Foe,never mind all the sunday leagers all around the world that you never hear about?

Cheerleading has had more deaths and serious injuries in the last year than MMA has since they started,admittedly you have to take into account the amount of people that do certain sports compared to others and man and water is a dangerous combo no matter what,but still a death in the sport is a death all the same,yet people don't bat an eye lid at these and just put it down to an unfortunate accident.

I think the thing that bothers me a bit about MMA fans is using the "safer than boxing" line as a main reason to justify the sport. Frankly, does it matter? All sports with an element of risk are justified on the right of the participant to risk their health and safety if they choose to do so, and that is the core reason under which MMA should be argued for against its detractors. This will happen again, and to be honest I doubt that MMA is particularly safer than boxing considering how many more boxing fights happen world wide, so we have to have some sort of better reasoning to justify MMA than its safety record.

Well death in Combat sport should be taken more seriously than others, because the aim is too hurt the oppenent. If people did what they do outside the cage/ring it would be seen as a crime/ manslaughter/ Murder.

Not really comparable to a guy going out fishing and drowning, or someone playing golf getting struck by lightning, etc.


Dont get me wrong, im hate the anti-MMA, treehugging, pussys aswell


But i can understand why more attention is paid to deaths in MMA. The guy who died was literally killed by the guy he was fighting.

Outside cage = Murder.

I'm not saying that I don't understand why Deaths in combat sports are taken more seriously,it's just I feel it gets blown completely out of proportion and the facts don't back up there arguments

On the boxing thing,I personaly feel MMA is safer for your long term health than boxing,due to the consistant shots you take to the head with padded gloves and the fact that you get the standing 8 count in boxing and you can have quite a few of them in a 10 or 12 rd boxing match and come back out for more,compared to an MMA fight,where if you get rocked to that state,the fight is over,plus the amount of punch drunk fighters you see compared with,well I can't off the top of my head name an old school MMA fighter who is punch drunk,but like you say does it matter,any sport where physical contact is part of the rules,runs the risk of serious injury or worse from one punch or an acumilasion of shots and as Sun said,All sports with an element of risk are justified on the right of the participant to risk their health and safety if they choose to do so.

Racecar drivers,especially like Nascar deliberately bump and try and force other drivers off the track to jockey for position and deaths have happened due to it(yes they have saftey precautions but so do combat sports,thats why they become sports),that would also be attempted murder or murder if it was on the roads,Thats the punishment they face if they are do it in an illegal street race,even if the car was fitted out with roll bars and the whole safety kit.

"I can't off the top of my head name an old school MMA fighter who is punch drunk"

I dont want to be the one to say it...

Really sad to hear of course RIP big man. Deaths are going to happen in MMA, as long as the death to fight ratio is lower than Boxing's I think MMA will be ok as a sport.

rest in peace.

very saddening.

Don't mean to show disrespect, but a 6ft9 lightweight?!?!?!

some alarm bells should be ringing, he is probably severly weight drained.

i dont know if this is @ 155 but he is a very skinny guy
(old fight)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhKU0u3CzXY

If this is a result of an underweight man cutting weight (which includes the fluid in your brain) then somthing should be done.

its speculation of course.