‘It’s a very serious risk’: Safety in the spotlight following amateur fighter’s death

Professional mixed martial arts fighters are hoping the death of a fighter following a charity MMA event this past weekend brings about change in Alberta.
“It’s a tragedy, obviously, in the combat sports world,” said Ryan Ford, a co-owner at Edmonton’s Wolf House Gym. Ford is a professional fighter with more than 60 professional mixed martial arts and boxing fights under his belt.
“Things like this do happen. It is a very big risk to step in the cage or the ring to fight.”
The amateur charity fighting event, put on by U.K.-based Ultra MMA, took place Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Enoch Community Centre, on the First Nation directly west of Edmonton. The First Nation said Ultra MMA privately rented the facility and hired their own staffing team.
One of the fighters during the second of 19 planned fights, Trokon “Tee” Dousuah went into medical distress and died in hospital early the following morning.
The 33-year-old Edmonton man leaves behind a wife and children.
Ford said he watched videos from the beginning of Saturday’s event, before it was shut down when Dousuah’s health made a turn for the worst.
“There was no headgear. There was no shin pads. And they’re wearing pretty much MMA professional gloves,” Ford said, explaining at his gym, amateur boxers start out wearing big gloves and head protection, while amateur Muay Thai fighters wear that plus shin guards and elbow pads.
Wolf House Gym separates fighters into beginner, intermediate and professional categories and Ford said they have many types of training classes, such as an introduction to sparring — going through the motions of boxing without landing heavy blows — for people who’ve never thrown a punch before.
“And it’s not even sparring. It’s just showing you the basic skills, what sparring is going to be like. And then you get moved up and then you spar. So, you know, there’s so many different little levels that before you get thrown into a fight.”
“Once you pass that certain level of fights, you’re more experienced. Shin pads come off, head helmet comes off. And then after that stage, you turn pro. So it’s not just, ‘Come in training for a month and then, yeah, you’re ready to fight.’”
Global News spoke to a few of the people who signed up to fight at the Enoch event and they said the 20 or so fighters trained together two hours a week, for eight weeks leading up to the fight, and characterized it as turning people off the street into decent fighters.
Ford said what he saw at the Enoch event, where the amateur fighters were not wearing any of that protective gear, left him feeling the event shouldn’t have happened and now needs to be investigated.
“People with minimal experience being thrown into the cage to pretty much fight professionally — this is something that should be looked over very quick.”
Safety over winning or putting on a show should always be the first priority in a fighting event, Ford said.
“Make sure that you’re prepared to fight and to make sure that you get home safe,” he said. “Like, yes, we want to win, but if you’re taking too much damage, there’s times when that needs to stop. You’d rather go home to your family than die and win a fight, you know?
“I tell people, you play football. You play soccer. You play hockey. You don’t play fighting. It’s a very serious risk on your health and your life.”
Ari Schacter is a personal injury lawyer in Edmonton who represented the family of Tim Hague, a boxer that died in 2017 following a blow to the head.
He said fighters know — or ought to know — what they are signing up for and while every case is unique, generally there are limited legal options when things go awry.
“There’s a defence at law called ‘volenti non fit injuria’ that generally applies, and basically you’re a willing participant in your own risk.
“If you know the consequences of engaging in a dangerous sport are potential death, you take on that risk.”
Unlike other provinces, Alberta does not regulate combative sports at a provincial level.
Earlier this month, a judge leading a fatality inquiry into Hague’s knockout death recommended changes to how the sport is regulated and how head injuries are monitored.
Justice Carrie Sharpe with Alberta’s provincial court made 14 recommendations in a report published last month, including that combat sports be overseen by a provincial authority instead of a patchwork of municipal bodies.
Schacter said he believes those recommendations should be implemented and would lead to greater safety in the fighting world.
“A greater regulatory system that is governed by the provincial government, I think would help ensure things like this doesn’t happen,” he said. “There definitely needs to be some more provincial oversight and a higher a higher level of care put into fighter safety.”
Ryan hopes this latest death serves as a wake up call for fighters and the public.
“There’s a lot of tough guys out there, but the fight game is totally different than just being tough.”
Global News posed several questions about safety to the organizers of the Enoch event — Ultra Events Canada — but the company did not answer them. Instead, it issued a statement expressing condolences to Dousuah’s family and saying an investigation is now underway into his death.
The Alberta RCMP is also aware and looking into what happened.
Ultra MMA said their event was sanctioned by the Central Combat Sports Commission.
Global News reached out several times via phone and email on Tuesday and Wednesday to that commission, which is based in Penhold in central Alberta, but none of our requests for comment were acknowledged.