5 MMA Fighters Who Died In The Octagon

#3 Michael Kirkham:

The octagon can be a dangerous place for any fighter

When 30-year-old Michael Kirkham was announced to take part in a fight at the Dash Entertainment/King MMA 'Confrontation at the Convocation Centre', no one had expected that it would go the way that it did.

His opponent, Carlos Iraburo, took him down to the matt within seconds of his debut as a professional. He was hit on the back of the head several times by Iraburo before the referee stopped the fight only 41 seconds in. Unfortunately, Kirkham had lost consciousness and did not recover from the blows.

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He would die two days after the fight, due to subarachnoid haemorrhage of the brain. There was speculation that Kirkham's last bout had also ended in TKO, and there had been issues lingering from that fight itself.

About the author

Anirban Banerjee is a journalist from Kolkata, India and has been a part of building Sportskeeda's WWE section over the past 8 years. He's been an Assistant Content Manager for the team during the past 3 years as well. Banerjee has interviewed Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, 'Cowboy' Cerrone, Jorge Masvidal, Mandy Rose, Joe Hendry, Darren Till, and many others.

Anirban has worked in the field of wrestling and mixed martial arts journalism for several years. In addition to his work on Sportskeeda, Anirban is a fiction writer and has co-written over 20 biographies. He was also a columnist for 90 Minutes.

In his free time, Anirban is an avid reader and spends hours lost in books.

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Edited by Sagnik Monga