RCMP investigate death of MMA fighter in bout on Alberta First Nation

Police are investigating the death of a man at a mixed-martial arts fight Saturday on the Enoch First Nation adjacent to Edmonton.

Trokon Dourash, 33, died from injuries he sustained in an Ultra MMA bout held at the Enoch Community Centre, according to a statement to CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday from his pregnant wife.

RCMP on Monday confirmed they are investigating the death.

Dourash and his wife have two children.

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Fellow amateur fighters said Dourash, an Edmonton man who was relatively new to the sport, seemed to be doing well in the ring until he wasn't.

He was eventually helped out of the cage in physical distress.

"He was transported to the back room and he was there for maybe 40 minutes minimum," fellow fighter Natalia Rajkovic told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.

The event staged by the U.K.-based Ultra MMA was billed as one for beginners following eight weeks of training to "get in great shape" and as a charitable fundraiser. 

Rajkovic and others have questions about how the event was laid out, including whether or not there was one or more on-site doctors.

A spokesperson for Ultra Events Canada, which rented the facility from Enoch First Nation and staged the fight, said in a statement to CTV News Edmonton the event "was carried out under the auspices of the Central Alberta Combat Sports Commission" and because investigations are "now underway into the cause of our participant’s death, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

The sports commission, which sanctioned Saturday's charity fights, told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday it will not comment during the police investigation.

Dourash's death comes almost three weeks after a judge leading a fatality inquiry into the knockout death of an Edmonton boxer in 2017 recommended changes to how the sport is regulated in Alberta and how head injuries are monitored.

Timothy Hague, a 34-year-old former kindergarten teacher once nicknamed The Thrashing Machine, died two days after a boxing match licensed by the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission in June 2017.

The heavyweight fighter was knocked out in the second round but left the ring on his own. He was being looked after by a ringside doctor when he lost consciousness again and was taken to hospital, where he underwent surgery for a large brain bleed but died two days later.

The inquiry was not meant to find fault but to come up with recommendations that could prevent similar deaths in the future.

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.

Minister of Sport and Tourism Joseph Schow told media at the Alberta legislature Tuesday the circumstances around Dourash's death are "very concerning."

"If we're going to compete in sports in Alberta, it has to be done safely," said Schow, adding the province had no jurisdiction over Saturday's event as it was held on a First Nation.

"We have to create an environment that's welcoming for athletics, regardless of focus ... If we're going to look at ways to make things safer, we want to be collaborative and understand how we can do that without dictating to everyone, but we also want to make sure that it is a safe place to have sporting events."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk and Chelan Skulski, and The Canadian Press