Najai “Nitro” Turpin, a middleweight boxing star who was selected as a contestant in the upcoming boxing reality series The Contender, committed suicide on Valentine’s Day at the age of 23.
Turpin’s girlfriend of seven years, Angela Chapple, the mother of his 2-year-old daughter, Anyae, was sitting in the car with him a short time before Turpin put a gun to his head. Detectives said that Chapple was away from the car before the incident, though, and was not threatened by him.
“Nobody knows what must have been in his head. If I knew, I’d tell the world, but it was his secret,” said Turpin’s trainer, Perry “Buster” Custus. No one close to Turpin even knew he had the gun, which wasn’t registered to him and did not have a permit.
Philadelphia native Turpin was the sole provider of his younger siblings when the opportunity to join NBC’s reality series The Contender arrived. The show follows the lives of 16 boxers competing against each other to win $1 million. Turpin had a very promising career with a 13-1-0 record that included 9 knock-outs at the time of his death.
NBC executives said the show will go on as planned, starting March 7, and the show will not have to be revamped in the wake of Turpin’s death.
“Najai was a wonderful kid with a lot of heart,” said boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard, who is the host of The Contender. “Everyone is highly distraught over this loss – he will be missed.”