João Carvalho (1988 – 11 April 2016) was a Portuguese

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

fighter under the Total Extreme Fighting promotion. He represented Portuguese club Team Nobrega as a

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

fighter.

Mixed martial arts career

Shortly after being beaten by

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

in a fight on 9 April 2016 against

Charlie Ward Charlie Ward Jr. (born October 12, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and current head coach for the Florida A&M Rattlers. Ward was an exceptional college football player as w ...

(who went on to fight in the

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. The larg ...

following the fight), Carvalho began to feel ill. He was taken to

Beaumont Hospital, Dublin Beaumont Hospital () is a large teaching hospital located in Beaumont, Dublin, Ireland. It is managed by RCSI Hospitals - one of the hospital groups established by the Health Service Executive. Its academic partner is the Royal College of Su ...

, where he underwent emergency brain surgery. He died in the hospital's

intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine. An inten ...

on 11 April 2016. The death of Carvalho aroused rage and an explosion of debate and criticism. Ward's father and the MMA community shared the sentiment that the fight should have been stopped much earlier. The referee who was in charge of the fight, Mariusz Domasat, defended his decision and said "If you watch the fight you see clearly there was no reason to stop the fight earlier. I stopped the fight when there was a reason to stop the fight, when the fighter wasn't willing to fight anymore, that's it. Everyone who has any idea about MMA knows the fight was stopped at the exact proper time. I am an experienced referee and part of the Irish Amateur Pankration Association... and I know what I am doing." Subsequently, Ireland Minister of State for Tourism and Sport,

Michael Ring Michael Ring (born 24 December 1953) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Mayo constituency from 1997 to 2024, and previously from 1994 to 1997 for the Mayo West constituency. He served as Minister ...

, spoke of his long concern for the safety aspect of the sport. He had written to 17 MMA promoters in Ireland that he expected MMA should adhere to the same safety standards that apply in other sports.

Mixed martial arts record

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Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland , , - , Win , align=center, 1–1 , Hugo Peixoto , TKO (punches) , International Pro Combat 8 , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 4:59 , ,

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carvalho, Joao 1988 births 2016 deaths Deaths by beating in Europe Portuguese male mixed martial artists Sport deaths in the Republic of Ireland 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen

Mixed martial arts career

Mixed martial arts record

See also

References