![\"Charlie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024bc6f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nCharlie Ward at Bellator Dublin in the 3 Arena, Dublin, in February 2020<\/p>\n
A judge has awarded former Mixed Martial Arts fighter Charlie Ward $50,000 (\u20ac44,000) for a US fight purse he lost because of injuries he suffered when a garda pursuit vehicle crashed into his car five years ago.<\/p>\n
Judge Sin\u00e9ad N\u00ed Ch\u00falach\u00e1in added a further \u20ac12,000 for neck and head injuries Mr Ward suffered in the collision with the garda patrol car at red lights on Long Mile Road, Dublin, after the patrol car had tried to follow a motorist who had just broken the red-light signal ahead of it.<\/p>\n
Mr Ward, aged 45, of Acragar, Mountmellick, Co Laois, had sued the Garda Commissioner for \u20ac60,000 damages arising from the crash, which, his barrister Conor Kearney stated, had cost him at least $50,000 in lost earnings.<\/p>\n
Mr Kearney, who appeared with Aisling Woods of Michael Kelleher Solicitors, told Judge N\u00ed Ch\u00falach\u00e1in he had won only one fight and lost three following the crash and before his retirement several years ago.<\/p>\n
Judge N\u00ed Ch\u00falach\u00e1in said liability had been conceded by the Commissioner of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and she was taking into consideration a reduction in damages for contributory negligence due to Mr Ward having admitted travelling in a bus lane before the incident.<\/p>\n
\nCharlie Ward at Bellator Dublin in the 3 Arena, Dublin, in February 2020<\/p>\n
She said he had lost $50,000 for having to pull out of a contract to fight in the United States shortly after the incident and was entitled to be compensated for that.<\/p>\n
Mr Ward told the court that following the incident he had never been able to fight to the level he had been able to when he was rated in the top 10 in the world at his fighting weight.<\/p>\n
Barrister Fred Gilligan, who appeared with Karina Tkachenko of Mason Hayes and Curran Solicitors for the Garda Commissioner, told the court the incident would most likely never have happened if Mr Ward had not been illegally driving in the bus lane at the time.<\/p>\n
Mr Ward admitted in cross-examination by Mr Gilligan that he should not have been driving in the bus lane.<\/p>\n
Leading Irish MMA trainer John Kavanagh, who schooled Mr Ward among 50 other MMA fighters at his Long Mile Road gym in Dublin, told Judge N\u00ed Ch\u00falach\u00e1in that, absent the crash injuries, Mr Ward could potentially have progressed in stages of $50,000 to purses as high as $500,000 (\u20ac438,350).<\/p>\n
“He could not train or perform to the level he used to following the accident,” Mr Kavanagh said.<\/p>\n
On 9 April 2016 Mr Ward defeated, on a technical knockout, Portuguese MMA fighter Joao Carvalho in a Dublin contest.<\/p>\n
Tragically, Mr Carvalho died in Beaumont Hospital two days later following emergency brain surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge has awarded former Mixed Martial Arts fighter Charlie Ward $50,000 (\u20ac44,000) for a US fight purse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-561055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}