Last week, we started analysing the May 1987 coup and considering its positive fallouts. We then briefly evaluated the hospitalisation of prominent local boxer Udayd Haider. At that time, he was in coma at the Lautoka Aspen Hospital. Today he is no longer with us. His funeral was held on November 13. The crowd that came to farewell that icon was a sight to behold. I missed out because of work commitments, but here is my tribute and an analysis of what led to that tragedy in the haloed ring.
Ubayd Haider aka Nathan Singh
I first encountered Haider when he was a young kid fighting in the amateurs. Later, I noticed him because he used to be very vocal whenever he took Uptown Boxing Club pugilists into the ring. It was also very difficult not to notice him because he had a brash, on-your-face type of style about him. Then I became the Chairman of Boxing Commission of Fiji (BCF) and Nathan (as he was known then) was a big part of boxing with his father Gyan Singh, brother Sebastine Singh and their troupe of boxers.
This is when I got to have small talks with Haider, and it was difficult not to like him. He was just a young guy with lots of charm, lots of ideas and prodigious talent. He was also quite witty, cheeky and obviously intelligent. It looked like he felt that he was hard done by in life as he kept a part of him hidden away. There was an element of political savvy and distrust that I had to work hard to remove. It was gone once we started talking openly.
That political savvy came to the fore when he managed to arrange a meeting with the then Sports Minister (Parveen Kumar) after having obtained a letter of endorsement from me as Chair to join the famed Dragon Fire boxing camp in Australia. He appeared to have a direct link with Angelo Hyder, the man who was in Tim Tzyu’s corner in his bleeding capitulation recently. The idea was to provide Haider with some sort of official support.
There was an expectation of some financial support, but I had already told him that we were very thin on that front. BCF got only $30,000 from government at the time and that was not even enough to hold an extra boxing program. I had explained this to Haider, but he wanted to hear the “truth” from the minister. In fact, he was taken aback when I walked into the meeting. Anyway, I handed him another copy of the same letter and we wished him well because, after all, he was carrying our flag.
Thus, Haider left Fiji for Australia with high hopes and verbal support from government. He fought twice there and won both at a time when our boxers were losing left right and centre. Tragedy struck him in one of his sparring sessions where he got injured. In November 2023 he reported to Liverpool Hospital (Elizabeth St) where medical tests were conducted. The diagnosis was that Nathan had subdural haematoma.
A subdural hematoma is a type of bleeding near your brain that can happen after a head injury. Symptoms like headaches and slurred speech can develop right after the injury or days to months later. Subdural hematomas can be life-threatening, so it’s crucial to see a healthcare provider whenever you have a head injury. Haider was told all this in no uncertain terms. He managed to discharge himself from Liverpool Hospital but was told to see a GP for follow-up tests. It is unclear whether this was done.
Haider then returned to the local boxing scene and managed to catch the public’s eye without too much effort. Everyone wanted to see him fight and many waited quietly for him to get beaten. He quickly got into action and managed to string together four wins before his last fateful outing against Runqi Zhou. Few realised the significance of the fact that Zhou had moved to Australia from China to further his boxing career just as Nathan had tried to do earlier. Only boxers with recognisable talent are able to follow this path. Both these warriors had that.
Before that fight it was observed that Haider and his camp were very careful in choosing his opponents. Mikaele Ravalaca’s challenges were repeatedly thwarted. There were murmurs that Haider was waiting for Mika to gain weight so that he would have difficulty bringing it down for an encounter between the two. Anyway, rumours were rife. In the build-up to the IBO title fight, Nathan was full of confidence and sure of a win. The opposite happened on the night and the rest is history.
The blame game began straight afterwards with someone saying that no doping tests were carried out. This gained traction especially through social media where the keyboard warriors usually wreak havoc behind fake profiles. There are three parties who are being vilified in discussions around the untimely demise of Ubayd Haider. Let’s dissect each one of these here.
Referee
The referee for the program was carefully chosen by IBO officials as three of their international titles were being contested. I could not stop marvelling at the man’s competence and professionalism. I kept telling people around me that our fight officials should watch him closely and see it as a training opportunity. It is well-known among boxing enthusiasts that the best referee is the one that is least visible – this guy was so adept that we hardly noticed him.
Some say that the referee should have stopped the fight at the end of the fifth round. I was sure after three rounds that there would be only one result – a TKO or a KO. To his credit, the referee did consult the corners between rounds and Haider was always ready for the next round. There were no visible injuries and Haider wasn’t floundering around or falling all over the place – the referee was right in keeping it going.
He would have been blamed vociferously if he had stopped that bout. Keen followers of boxing will recall the eagerly anticipated bout between Julio Caesar Chavez and Meldrick Taylor. One was a fighter/brawler and the other had speed and footwork. Chavez, a boxing legend in the making, was behind on all scorecards even though Taylor, an Olympic gold medallist, looked like he had run through a tornado when the bout was stopped with two seconds remaining by referee Richard Steele.
At that time, the two most respected boxing referees were Steele and Mills Lane. Steele stopped that bout citing boxer safety as Taylor was taking a pounding and his face was grotesquely battered. But two seconds is what people pointed at. Taylor was two seconds away from toppling a legend and becoming a legend himself. The discussions around this bout are still heated. Suffice to say, even the best referees do not escape the ire of the public.
Boxing Commission of Fiji
Much has been made about the absence of doping tests. Sure, this should have been done, but who do we blame for this. Promoters are repeatedly reminded of the need for this and they repeatedly plead amnesia. We used to have random tests earlier and the Promoters had to be reminded at the weigh-in as well as on the day of the program. We even identified which boxers to test. The learning from this case is that we cannot take Promoters at their word and need to push for tests. This brings us to the last point of responsibility.
Boxer’s corner
There is no denying that Haider’s camp knew that he was carrying a head injury. Despite this, he had put together four wins in Fiji. Rungqi Zhou was a relatively unknown entity around these parts. Haider was full of confidence and bravado. This probably permeated through his camp and they decided everything would go well. Why they didn’t throw in the towel after five rounds or soon afterwards is baffling. Sure, Haider was a warrior, but his safety should have been paramount.
Nathan Singh aka Udayd Haider gave us the best he had. He is no more and there is much to be learnt from this debacle. Fiji Boxing needs to get back up, shake off the cobwebs take the learnings on board and look to the future that still shines even though we look at it through misty eyes. So long champ, you will be missed forever.
- DR SUBHASH APPANNA is a senior USP academic and boxing enthusiast who chaired Fiji Boxing for 4 years. He also writes regularly on issues of historical and national significance. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers.
