The heartbroken family of a young man who died while training for a white-collar boxing charity match have spoken out in fury at an events company that has now been linked to four deaths.
Owen Henderson died on November 4, one week after he attended an Ultra White Collar Boxing (UWCB) training session ahead of a fight he was due to be participating in later in the month.
UWCB - run by Ultra Events - invites novices with no boxing history to attend eight weeks of 'free' training before being thrown into the ring in front of hundreds of spectators on a 'fight night'.
The 23-year-old had signed up to the program in the hopes of raising money for Angelman Syndrome Foundation. His brother, Harry, suffers from the rare disorder.
But when Owen, from Oakham, Rutland, attended training at Stanground Leisure Centre in Peterborough on October 28, his family say he received a blow during a sparring session which caused a 'serious head injury'.
They say he was last seen on CCTV footage leaving the training session with a bloody nose, before he was found unconscious having suffered what they were later told was a seizure in the centre's toilets.
He was rushed to hospital but despite undergoing a four-hour long operation in a bid to 'relieve the pressure on his brain due to a bleed', his family were given the devastating news that nothing could be done to save his life.
Now, his father Kevin Henderson has told of how he is living his 'worst nightmare'.
He told the Mail: 'He shouldn't be dead. My boy should not be laying there.'
Owen Henderson had signed up to take part in an Ultra White Collar Boxing fight in a bid to raise money for Angelman Syndrome Foundation. He died earlier this month after taking part in a training session for the event.
An image of a UWCB 'fight night' in London. Owen was due to take part in a fight night in Peterborough but was injured after a training session and died a week later.
The latest tragedy is the fourth to plague the scandal-ridden company since 2017, and serious concerns have previously been raised over its matching, training and medical provisions.
Governing boards such as England Boxing, which oversees amateur boxing, and the British Boxing Board of Control, which regulates professional boxing, have been working to bring in more regulation around white collar boxing.
Owen's family say they are still left with unanswered questions about what happened at the session, and they hope that lessons will be learned from his death.
'I'm living my worst nightmare', Mr Henderson said. 'I'm 63. I wanted to make memories with my son but those are gone. Everything is gone.
'Whatever happened in that ring we'll never know.
'There are lots of unanswered questions. What procedures were in place? Were there first aiders there? We don't even know who he was fighting with.
'When you are in the ring in a professional fight, you bleed and you get checked out straight away.
'It wasn't until his mate found him unconscious in the toilet that anything happened.
'There wasn't health and safety in place, and these things need to be put in place.
'It needs to be brought to people's attention, because people have died, and I can feel what those other parents are feeling.'
Ultra maintain that there were three personnel on-site with first-aid training qualifications, including the head coach, and that the 'light sparring' involved only jabs.
When Owen was found in the toilets, he was initially admitted to Peterborough City Hospital before being transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge, where he underwent urgent surgery.
His life support was turned off on November 4, one week after the training session, and his organs were used to save five other lives.
A fundraising page has since been set up to keep Owen's work going, raising just over £2,000 for Angelman charity and for Owen's funeral costs.
Mr Henderson described Owen as a 'very caring soul', adding: 'He was raising money for the Angelman Charity because of his brother, Harry. He needs 24/7 care and his mother needs respite, and he was raising money for the charity to give people in the same position respite.
'I couldn't talk him out of it. If I had known then what I know now, and I knew the risks and about other people who have died before, I would have sat him down and said "no son".
'He was doing it to be good. He was a very caring soul, and just wanted to help. He wasn't a fighter, or a boxer. He was doing it for charity, for his brother.'
'He was a lover, not a fighter.'
'Even after death, he is still caring for others. He loved, he gave and he cared.'
'I go through rollercoasters of emotion. I’m angry and then I’m not.'
'He shouldn’t be dead. My boy should not be laying there.'
The fight night that was due to take place at Peterborough Planet Ice on November 22 but has been postponed.
Family friend Charlene Stubbs told the Mail how the company had 'not contacted the family whatsoever' following Owen's death.
She said: '[Deaths] will keep happening as long as it continues.
'They [UWCB] have not contacted the family whatsoever. They just don't care.'
The company claims a representative from Ultra did speak directly with Owen's family to offer support and that the family made clear that they did not want any further contact. It says it wanted to respect the family's privacy but recently made further efforts to contact the family.
In 2017, 44-year-old Alastair Peck was found dead two days after his UWCB bout in Harrogate. He was the first death to be associated with the white collar boxing firm.
An inquest ruled he died from head injuries sustained during his debut boxing fight.
He had been raising money for Cancer Research in memory of his niece, Lauren Morgan, who died from kidney cancer in 2008 at the age of three.
It was heard that a previous head injury sustained during sparring training caused a weakened vein which made him more vulnerable.
Then in April 2022, the father of Dominic Chapman, 26, was sat in the crowd as he witnessed his son collapse in the ring during his fight in Worcester.
The young man was carried out of the town's Tramps Nightclub but the fight night continued - something John Chapman says he will never forgive UWCB for.
Two days later, he died.
During an inquest into Dominic's death it was heard that his opponent had nine years of kickboxing experience while Dominic was new to the sport.
When the Mail spoke to Dominic's father following Owen's death, he told of how he had hoped 'that no other family would have had to experience the loss of their loved one under these circumstances'.
Less than a year after Dominic's death, at an event in Nottingham, Jubal Reji Kurian, 23, was knocked unconscious during his bout.
He suffered bleeding on both sides of his brain and died four days later.
An inquest into his death found that Ultra White Collar Boxing, which hosted the charity boxing match, had followed Ultra Events safety policies and had carried out the correct medical checks before and after the match.
Owen's family friend Ms Stubbs and others in the community plan to continue to raise funds for the Angelman charity with a hike of 22.1 miles around Rutland Water on November 4, 2026, one year after his passing.
'He was such a kind and caring soul', she said. 'He was such a kind boy; he would have given his last breath if he could have.
'I had to carry on the fundraising for him. It was his dream, and I know it is what he wanted.'
'It has been a hard time. A lot of us are in shock.'
'There are a lot of questions we want answered.'
'There was no one there to help him and no first aid.'
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Constabulary confirmed a file has been passed onto the coroner.
An Ultra White Collar Boxing spokesperson said: 'Everyone at Ultra White Collar Boxing is deeply upset to hear about the tragic death of Owen, who was in training at a gym for a forthcoming event. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time, and we send our heartfelt condolences.
'Owen was involved in light, technical jab sparring prior to the incident. It is inappropriate for us to comment further on the circumstances of what happened while any formal investigations are ongoing.
'The safety of all of our participants is our main priority and something we treat extremely seriously.
'We have had over 250,000 participants since 2009 with an extremely high safety record, and we have strict processes in place to provide a safe environment for people to enjoy the experience of boxing while raising money for charity.'
'We had hoped that no other family would have had to experience the loss we have'
The moment when Dominic was carried out of Tramps Nightclub in 2022 while the fight night continued will forever replay in his father's mind.
'They carried on boxing that evening', he said. 'That is one thing I will never forgive them for.'
'Dominic was carried out the back room through the nightclub and the ring was to the right, everybody was aware and they denied it. Everybody was aware of the severity of Dominic’s injury.
But they, it’s the one I’ll never forgive them for. Is that they carried on boxing.
‘They carried him out of the ring to the back room, then through the nightclub through to the main entrance where the NHS ambulance was. Back through the crowd.
‘That lack of respect I think shows the moral compass of this organisation in my view.
‘The manager denied the fact, said he thought he was conscious, but it was clear that Dominic was in trouble. And they carried on.
‘And they’ll come back and say we’ve only had three deaths in ten years or twelve years or whatever, but that’s three too many. Even one death is one too many.
‘For me theres not been a proper outcome yet, there’s not been a proper understanding and acceptance of the need to change.
If you’re not regulated to do something, then your self-regulation is vitally important. And that to me clearly is not robust enough.
‘It is not a controlled environment, and I think that’s where the ambiguity is; that’s where the grey areas are; and that’s where the risk is.’
He warned: ‘I think at the moment, it will happen again. And God forbid the parents and family of that individual. Because I know what it is like; it’s crucifying.’
Now, Owen’s family have been left in a similar position.
When informed there has been another death, Mr Chapman told of how he had ‘hoped that no other family would have to experience the loss of their loved one’ under the same circumstances.
Dominic’s father John has spent more than three years campaigning for change, and continues to hope that changes will be made to ensure that ‘such events and training’ become ‘safer and in line’ with other boxing boards.