After Student Candlelight Vigil, Nathan Valencia Death in UNLV Charity Boxing Event Ruled A Homicide
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Las Vegas, Nevada (December 1, 2021)– The death of 20-year-old University of Las Vegas, Nevada undergraduate student Nathan Valencia after the main event of a charity boxing event by Kappa Sigma fraternity has been ruled a homicide due to blunt force trauma to the head. The ruling, and dying at the hands of another, is not necessarily a criminal act.
The fraternity, and the university, by endorsing and staging an unsanctioned amateur boxing event, and the fact no medical personnel or ambulance was present as required by law, and no professional referee was present supervising the event, are group issues.
Nick Lasso, attorney for Nathan Valencia’s family, told KTNV TV medical help for Nathan was not immediately available at the event, after he collapsed on November 19, 2021, at the Sahara Events Center in Las Vegas. Valencia died four days later in the hospital. “Our preliminary investigation reveals mistakes were made, and safety precautions overlooked.”
The Valencia family’s official statement said “We will be completing a full investigation to determine how UNLV, and Kappa Sigma Fraternity, could allow and promote an (illegal, unapproved and unsanctioned boxing) event like this to take place (in the first place). College students should not be placed in a situation where they are pitted against each other for combat.”
While the last statement of the Valencia family is an opinion, and not necessarily the way the law defines amateur sporting events, it is clear to all an unapproved unsanctioned full contact amateur sporting college event of any kind, whether for charity or not, amounts to potential mortal combat, and should not be allowed. Sanctioning sporting events have ambulances, medical personnel, and training ring referees and officials at ringside. There’s a reason for that, for purposes of safety and organization so sporting events run smoothly. The death of UNLV student Nathan Valencia has future ramifications for fraternities, sororities, colleges, and the staging of events of any kind with proper safety protocols and state athletic commission approvals, rules and regulations in place. Otherwise, fraternities and sororities must be unable to stage unapproved events, to prevent further tragedies like Valencia’s senseless death from reoccurring. Better to have a bake sale for charity, than to risk injury.
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