RIP Joao Carvalho, MMA Fighter Dies Following KO Loss In Dublin

The tragic circumstances surrounding Joao Carvalho’s last mixed martial arts fight may be disturbing to some, but it’s a story that needs to be told. At this weekend’s ‘TEF’ event in Dublin, Ireland, young MMA hopefuls Joao Carvalho and Charlie Ward faced off in a three round fight. Carvalho, of Portugal, travelled to the national arena in Dublin to face Ward in front of the Irishman’s home crowd. The fight went in to the third and final round, where Ward rallied for a hard fought TKO win. Sadly, Carvalho began suffering the side effects of concussion/compression, including nausea and headaches, and was rushed to the Beaumont hospital.

Carvalho remained in critical condition for 48 hours as doctors attempted emergency surgery to relieve the pressure on the fighter’s brain, but alas they were sadly unsuccessful. As per the Team Nobrega, Carvalho’s gym, he tragically passed away n the late hours of last night:

“It is with great sorrow and sadness that we write these words, that the death of the athlete Joao Carvalho happened after 48 hours in critical condition,” the statement read.

“On the site (Carvalho) was immediately assisted by the medical team this, and then quickly transported to the hospital Beaumont, where he was subjected to a brain surgical intervention, after which the athlete remained in critical condition during the 48 hours following, eventually passed away on this Monday the 21:35 hours.”

As Charlie Ward is a team mate of UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, ‘The Notorious’ was in attendance at the event when the fight went down. He offered his opinion, stating the ‘Referee should have stopped it sooner, I feel like these referees need to be a bit more on the ball.’ The promotion released an official statement on the harrowing news of Carvalho’s passing, as per SevereMMA:

“The doctors checked him between each round and each time he gave a full response to them. He responded to each question. He was asked where he was, what round he was going in to and what day of the week it was, and all of his answers were perfect.

“When the referee stopped the fight in the third round, our team of doctors and medics looked after him as he was bleeding quite heavily from his nose. He was asked if he felt any pain or was suffering with any headaches directly after the fight, and he said he had no pain or headaches, but he did feel quite tired.

“It was explained to him that he had to visit the medical room that was set up in the venue and that he would have to go to the hospital afterwards, because the doctor recommended that he should have a CT scan after the fight. At this stage, the fighter was walking, talking and smiling. Everything seemed perfectly fine.

“After he walked back to the medical room the doctors did some tests backstage and there was nothing out of the ordinary about their results. They prepared the ambulance to take him to the hospital.

“Ten minutes later he started complaining that he was suffering from headaches. He felt a lot of nausea and he began to vomit. Five minutes later he was significantly worse so we got him into the ambulance and rang the hospital to let them know he was coming.”

This is a harrowing reminder of the harsh realities of the fight game, and also a prompt that we as fans, and also the promoters and fighters, should do away with the ‘go out on your shield’ attitude. But that’s another subject for another day, for now, we send our hopes and wishes to the family and friends of Joao Carvalho, who was tragically taken last night. RIP.