UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta has said he "would love" to sit down with relevant authorities in Ireland to discuss the regulation of MMA in the country, following the tragic death of Joao Carvalho in Dublin last weekend.
Speaking to Luke Thomas of MMA Fighting, Fertitta reiterated the organisation's desire to see mixed martial arts events regulated to an acceptable standards, regardless of their affiliation - or lack thereof - with the UFC.
The debate surrounding the sport and its standing in Ireland reached fever pitch in the aftermath of Carvalho's untimely death. We discussed the issue of safety in MMA and the subsequent nationwide fallout on Wednesday's episode of The Racket:
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/258834290" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
When asked about the issue, Fertitta told Luke Thomas:
That has always been our mantra. We run towards regulation.
We would love to be able to sit down to work with the authorities in Ireland, and the UK, so that not just our events, but all the events are properly regulated.
I don’t know exactly what happened in that event, everybody is still trying to figure that out but that’s the reason we want regulation, so there are standards, so it’s the same everywhere and we would certainly think that that would be a good idea.
Skip to 2:20 to watch this section of the interview:
Credit must go to Luke Thomas, too, for asking the question with such specific detail in quite awkward circumstances - Fertitta was only present to discuss New York's lifting of its ban on the UFC following a long-standing trade dispute.
Appreciate Jacob Tierney taking the time to send this our way.
