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Family of student who died after charity boxing match in Nottingham sues organisers for £200,000

From the Newshound archive · first published 13 October 2026.

Jubel Reji Kurian, the 23-year-old Nottingham University postgraduate whose father is suing boxing event organisers for £200,000, claiming a referee failed to intervene before the fatal knockout punch.
Jubel Reji Kurian, the 23-year-old Nottingham University postgraduate whose father is suing boxing event organisers for £200,000, claiming a referee failed to intervene before the fatal knockout punch.

Reji Kurian, father of 23-year-old student Jubel Reji Kurian, is pursuing a £200,000 claim against boxing event organisers Ultra Events Ltd at London's High Court, contending that the referee ought to have intervened before the knockout punch that caused his son's fatal brain injuries. Jubel, a Nottingham University postgraduate studying sports medicine, went down in the final round at Harvey Haddon Sports Centre in March 2023 and died four days later without regaining consciousness. The family's barrister Harry Trusted told the court that the claim turns on establishing a sufficient degree of negligence on the part of the organisers.

Jubel had arrived in the UK only six months prior to his death, intending to complete a master's degree and go on to work as an NHS physiotherapist.

Ultra Events Ltd denies all liability, insisting its referee was highly experienced and that Jubel had completed more than 33 hours of boxing training beforehand.

'If that punch had not been delivered, Mr Kurian would have survived,' Trusted told the High Court.

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