An emergency consultant with experience at boxing and mixed martial arts fights has said the acting Minister for Sport, Michael Ring "does have power" to introduce standards to MMA in Ireland.
Dr. Mick Molloy was speaking on the Pat Kenny Show in aftermath of Minister Ring's comments on Off the Ball about the sport's lack of regulation in Ireland. The Minister "does have power here", Dr. Molloy claimed. "The Department for Education and Sport in the 90s came up with codes of practice for safety at outdoor sports events, outdoor pop concerts and indoor pop concerts. What they didn't cover at the time were codes of practice for indoor sports events. Those codes of practice are in operation for sporting events that take place outside."
Dr. Molloy added the those standards were created for health and safety purposes at event. "What number of doctors should be there, the type of training these people should have and also the number of paramedics, ambulances and that kind of stuff... It needs to be updated but the Minister does have the power to do something about this."
Portuguese fighter Joao Carvalho died on Monday night after competing at an event in Dublin on Saturday evening. The event's promoters stated that all precautions were taken ringside. Dr. Molloy told Pat Kenny that doctors with certain specialities would be of more use than others. "A specialist in neurology would not be the person you want at ringside. Possibly a neurosurgeon. Definitely an emergency specialist. Definitely a consultant anaesthetist."
"The Professional Boxing Union of Ireland is very, very strict on the medical staff it has at ringside for various events. The larger promotions such as the UFC mirror those grades. It's important that the people who are providing those services are trained to do it."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
