Following the news that Joao Carvalho had died after sustaining head injuries in a fight against his son, Charlie Ward Senior called in RTE’s Liveline to defend his son.
Following the tragic news of the death of Joao Carvalho, who passed away following injuries sustained at an MMA show in Dublin last weekend, the issue of MMA’s safety has been brought up again by Irish media outlets. RTE’s Joe Duffy, a long-time critic of MMA, once again called for the sport to be banned amid numerous calls from outraged listeners.
Duffy spoke of his disgust surrounding MMA on his hugely popular radio show:
“I am looking at it again and there were lots of people on their feet, around the ring at the National Stadium baying for blood.”
Duffy went on and discussed his reservations about MMA with his listeners.One guest on the show chimed in with his disdain for the sport:
“For the youth of the country to see that is unbelievable and how humans allow that operation to exist in our culture is unbelievable I could foresee all this happening. Why hasn’t something been done about it? I mean if you saw to dogs in the street doing it you wouldn’t let it happen.”
Later in the show, Charlie Ward Senior, the father of the fighter who is at the center of the controversy, phoned it to speak about how his son has been feeling since inflicting the fatal blows to Carvalho.
“Charles told me there was no way he was hitting him hard in the last round, because he knew he had him beat, he said a child would have took them.He said: ‘No way were those punches hard. There’s no way I was hitting him hard’.”
Ward went on to describe the turmoil this incident has thrown upon his family. When asked about how Charlie’s mother is coping:
“Sure, she’s in bits”.
Ward went on to defend his son:
“He didn’t go out to kill anyone. It’s just one of these unfortunate things. He went out to win his fight, but the referee could have been a bit quicker as far as I’m concerned.”