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Hey Western Australia, get your shit together.
Soa “The Hulk” Palelei has already helped grant 4 wishes for sick kids through the Make-A-Wish foundation, given lots of his time working as an ambassador, helped raise money, and was working with famous rugby players to do a special fundraiser where they will work out on an exercise machine for 24 hours straight in order to raise a bunch of money to give to the hospital to help heal sick children…
But the hospital said “NOPE.”
Palelei got a call from the wife of Matt Fuller (The rugby player involved in the fundraiser) saying that she has some tough news, Soa would not be allowed to meet or spend any time with the kids that they were raising money for.
“Following the significant media coverage of controversy surrounding UFC fighting, which is currently banned in Western Australia, a decision was made by the PMH executive that it would not be appropriate to have a representative of the sport visit the hospital,” said a hospital spokeswoman.
It’s worth noting that MMA isn’t banned there, just the UFC in particular (Or any promotion that uses a cage rather than a ring.) They must have been huge Pride fans over in the Australian government.
“I’m not against boxing, I’m not against wrestling and so on, but I don’t think we need to go down the path of ‘cagefighting’ in WA and I think the vast majority of people would agree with me,” said Premier Colin Barnett.
Really Colin? What about the sick children that you’re depriving from seeing their hero? Would they agree with you, too?
To understand what it’s like in Western Australia, imagine the rest of the civilized world except about 20 years in the past. The reason Soa can’t visit these kids is because of his profession as a “cagefighter”. Soa sounds really disappointed, especially since his son is battling absence epilepsy so any chance to raise some money for sick kids is right up Soa’s alley.
The hospital is still more than willing to accept the money that he’s going to raise for them, he’s just not allowed anywhere near.
Soa’s reaction on the next page:
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