Joao Carvalho, a mixed-martial arts fighter from Portugal, has died after he was knocked out in a fight Saturday in Dublin.
Total Extreme Fighting announced Tuesday that Carvalho, 28, died Monday night after undergoing emergency brain surgery Saturday night, according to Independent.com.
“We extend our most sincere condolences to the family of Joao Carvalho’s and his teammates in Team Nobrega,” TEF chief executive officer Cesar Silva said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We’d also like to thank all sports fans for their concern and support.
“We will give whatever support we can to Joao’s family. We have been in contact with his family and they have requested that we all understand their need for privacy at this difficult time.”
Graphic video of the welterweight fight shows Charlie Ward, an Irishman who is a teammate of UFC star Conor McGregor, pummeling Carvalho’s head. Just as the video ends, he keels over. The fight was stopped in the third round by the referee.
In its statement, TEF said that Carvalho was examined by doctors and other medical staff at the National Stadium’s medical office “as per normal procedure” after the fight.
“The doctors checked him between each round and each time he gave a full response to them,” Katarzyna Michlic, owner of Eventmed, which put on the fight, told Severe MMA. “He responded to each question. He was asked where he was, what round he was going into 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.”
His condition then deteriorated.
“Ten minutes later he started complaining that he was suffering from headaches,” Michlic said. “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.”
McGregor said he thought the fight could have been stopped earlier.
“My teammate Charlie had a good win just there. Hell of a fight. Yer man [Carvalho] took some big shots,” McGregor, the UFC featherweight champ, told MMAConnectTV (via Independent.com). “Thought it could have been stopped a little earlier. I feel these referees need to be on the ball a little bit.”
Carvalho’s Nobrega team coach, Vitor Nobrega, wrote in a statement on Facebook that it was “deeply saddened and dismayed” by his death.