South Carolina Fighter Michael Kirkham Dies Following Fight
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 3:04 PM EDT
in South Carolina MMA
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PrintMichael Kirkham, 30 years old, from Gaston, SC died this morning as a result of a head injury during his MMA event at USC Aiken Saturday. He was pronounced dead this morning at Aiken Regional Medical Center.
Kirkham was transported to Aiken Regional Medical Center after he was struck several times in the head. He was unresponsive when transported and never regained consciousness. He died of a brain hemorrhage.
This was Kirkham's first professional match. He had fought in MMA events 6 times previously as an amateur
Kirkham's fight took place at the "Confrontation at the Convocation" event, promoted by Dash Entertainment and King MMA. Kirkham, nicknamed "Tree", was notable for being 6' 9" and fighting in the lightweight division. This is the second known death in American MMA, following Sam Vasquez's passing in November 2007.
Our condolences go out to Kirkham's family.
UPDATE: Video of Kirkham fighting D'Juan Owens in an amateur match back in April.
(via icunvme2005)
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Can't find any details on this
but the name of this event was the Confrontation At Convocation Center
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added
found a cached event page on google, but there’s not much info about the event on the web
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 3:40 PM EDT up reply actions
yea
I couldn’t find ANYTHING on the event..in regards to fight card when I posted the poster as a fanshot last week.
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I feel like it’s always gonna be these small shows where the serious injuries happen
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions
yea
SC getting legalized LAST year doesn’t really help things….
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A person who is 6;9 most likely is almost anerexic and isn’t conditioned to take hard shots. Just think how skinny cory hill was @ 6’5 and fighting at light weight, imagine anothe 4-5inches of height. And look what happened to him. Sucks to hear someone lost thier life but it needs to be known that he was a prime canidate for something like this.
i'm almost certain it played a part
I go back to when Overeem said he was pissing blood to make 205 back in the day at 6’5"
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions
yea
I wonder if dehydrating to make weight can make concussions easier to take place?.
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It makes it ALOT easier to take place.....
When a person re-hydrates (esp if its a same day weigh in with ammys) the fluid that is around the brain between it and the skull is some of the last to come back. Its foolish, in the extreme to cut more than 9 or so pounds as an amatuer in MMA (with same day of fight weigh in)
Yep, the fluid around the brain is what prevents it from turning to mush when you get knocked around, and with that wicked of a weight cut… well, unless he had an ish-ton of experience as a wrestler before (you know, the dudes who have cutting down to a science), being that tall and that lean is just making me wonder how the hell he got down that low. I’m 6’3" and am ~220, with not much muscle and a good bit of flub. I couldn’t comprehend getting down to 155 and still being able to walk, let alone be coherant.
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Problem even with wrestlers who are very good at weight cutting is....
Even though they are good with functioning with a same day weight cut, you DONT get hit in the head wrestling. I have seen some pretty big weight cuts for amatuer MMA by some experienced wrestlers. It hasnt been a problem for most because they tend to be fighting outmatched opponents where the fight doesnt go very long and they dont get hit much. Even an ammy MMA match is longer than a college wrestling match, and, you can get smacked in the head.
This combined with some very odd weigh in rules (in NC anyway) is going to lead to problems down the road IMO.
Just realized, he was fighting as a pro
And at the same weight he fought as an ammy, so I dont know that the weight cut had any effect. I watched the vid rather than read before I commented, and just assumed the guy still had to be an amatuer from what I saw. In any event, sad business, worse that he had a kid.
i was at this fight in aiken he was fightin a guy makein his debut also the fight was less than a minute long he was taken down and hit mulitble times in the face before ref could stop the fight but the other fighter was simply distrout at what had happened but it wasnt a long drawn out beating it happend really really quick and michael kirkland jus appeared to be way to thin to be fightin at the weight class he was at
thanks for the info Wade
was he out in the cage for a long period of time or what?
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CONFUSED
I don’t know what match Wade was watching, but, his facts are NOT accurate. I recorded 34 seconds of the match before camera’s battery died. I was sitting in the first row of the ringside seats that were right behind the time keeper. I recorded the match on my camera. However, 34 seconds into the match, the battery died.
When the bell rang, Kirkham’s opponent charged in, feinted with a left hand and went in low to shoot the legs. He picked Kirkham up and slammed him to the mat (he landed on his butt). He had side mount and worked it into a top mount. Kirkham had his right arm around the neck trying to stay iin close. His opponent then sat up (pulling Kirkham into an essentially seated position.) He landed 2 left-handed punches and 4 right-handed punches to (what appears to be) Kirkham’s head. At that point, the camera quit.
But, what I remember is that his opponent was almost facing me when he landed approximately 8 blows to the head before the ref stopped it. During that time, there wasn’t much of an attempt to defend himself. However, the ref was on the far side and by the time he moved into a better position, he immediately jumped in and stopped the match.
He was awake when the stoppage occurred, but, lost consciousness almost immediately
This was a tragic accident, no question about it. Could it have been avoided? As a former U.S. Marine and practitioner of the martial arts, it’s hard for me to say. Every person who enters the octagon (or any combat oriented venue) knows the risks and rewards. However, I do not believe that any “wrong doing” occurred to justify even the word, “charges” being mentioned in the release by the Aiken County Coroner.
he was in the cage for about ten min before he was transproted they were tryin to make him breath but the fifgh arena is less than 2 minute from the hospital
it actually look like he was out when he was taken down but the ref couldnt get in fast enough to stop it
so it seems as if he died in the cage
Vasquez was in a coma for some weeks after his fight
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions
wow
was he hit with anything before taken down?
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man that’s crazy
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions
ive been to lots of shows this one was run and oficiciated well the matchups of fighters were good to. other than this one experience wise both were makein there debut but size wise michael was way taller and way thinner the other looked and was built for this weight class but michael was very i mean very thin! and it happened in seconds i dont know actual time but im guessin less than thirty seconds
so are you saying it kind of looked like he was out from the takedown?
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions
thanks for the info dude
know anyone who may have video of the event?
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
by Anthony Pace on Jun 28, 2010 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions
he was scooped from unneath and his head slammed the matt and he went limp jus that quick so there was no defense when he was struck
additional info
how many times was he slammed? what was the time of the fight?
Sad to hear, and one thing to keep in mind
There are ALOT of very underqualified trainers out there. If this kid took a good shot in the gym the past month (got dropped and went out) it most certainly could have played a part.
I wasn’t at the show but was told by a very, very reliable source that he sat up right after the stoppage then collapsed face first to the canvas. Then was unresponsive.
Not a very reliable source
He was awake at the stoppage. However, he NEVER stood up. So, he NEVER fell face first to the canvas. As I recall, within 30 seconds from the stoppage, he was out.
I was 15 feet from him and recorded 35 seconds of video. The battery in my camera died.
"This was Kirkham's first professional match"
I see according to MixedMartialArts.Com his ammy record was 1-3 any clue what his other two fights were? What was his opponents ammy record?
I wish his family well, but this needs to be a wake up call to the boxing authorities/commissions. It seems to be a trend to find someone who is young in their mma career going pro to find someone who did not do very well as an ammy. You see it all the time someonw who went 6-0 4-2 and they get paired with someone who was 1-6, 0-6. It is just a matter of time before more things like this happen. The commission/authority needs to wise up and stop allowing these type of matches to be approved.
Now I am fully aware this could and probably was one of those things that never happen, but lets do what we can to try to make sure they never happen
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by AceOfClubs on Jun 28, 2010 9:48 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I seem to remember Bernie Profato saying a lot of the same things when we had him on the show some time ago. Just because you’ve got fights doesn’t mean you should be allowed to turn pro, and that 1-6/0-6 comment summed it up perfectly. I’d actually like to see it where a fighter would be turned down for fights for a period before being reinstated.
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RIP Mike...
This was a good guy. He had a fiance and a young child. My condolences go out to his family and friends. He was nowhere near 6’9". He was about 6’ 5".
The harder you work, the luckier you get.........
by The Demolition Man on Jun 29, 2010 3:36 AM EDT reply actions
Also...
Since that isn’t the fight that resulted in his death, there’s no point in the video being attached to this or any other post pertaining to it.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.........
by The Demolition Man on Jun 29, 2010 5:23 AM EDT reply actions
it’s all good djuan
they took the video down
by Johnathan Willis on Jun 29, 2010 8:52 AM EDT up reply actions
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