Fatal MMA fight near Edmonton prompts calls for tougher combat rules in Alberta

Trokon Dousuah, surrounded by the black steel of a mixed martial arts cage, is declared the victor as the arena thrums with cheers from the crowd.

Moments later, spectators groan and gasp as he is carried out of the octagon, struggling to stand.

The amateur event, featuring competitors new to mixed martial arts, would be Dousuah's final fight.  

The 33-year-old was taken from Saturday's event at the community centre in Enoch, a First Nation community on Edmonton's western outskirts, to hospital where he later died.

Known as T to his friends, Dousuah leaves behind a pregnant wife and two young children.

The weekend tragedy is now raising questions about current regulations to govern combat sports in Alberta and what changes are needed to maintain fighter safety. 

The circumstances of Dousuah's death remain under investigation by the RCMP and the provincial government. 

Shara Vigeant, an Edmonton-based MMA trainer and former fighter, said the death is a "black mark" on combat sports in Alberta.

"Someone lost their life," she said in an interview with CBC News. "It enrages me because this was so preventable.

"This is what happens when there is not one commission and there's no continuity in regulations." 

Vigeant trained a boxer who would years later die of injuries sustained in the ring, Tim Hague, whose fatal match in Edmonton in 2017 sent shockwaves through the Canadian combative sports community.  

She said Alberta has failed to learn from the previous tragedy, which prompted widespread calls for the province to establish a single regulating body for combative sports in the province.

"MMA has a higher risk and with a higher risk there has to be better policing and better standards and there isn't right now," she said.

C