In Reality, a Tragedy for Boxer

"Ain't no doubt in my mind that he was going to be a champion," trainer Melvin "Mr. Mel" Carter said of Najai Turpin, picking him out from a group photo at James Shuler Memorial Gym. (Charles Fox -- Philadelphia Inquirer)

Friends at the gym said Turpin was a slick, smooth fighter with quick hands who immediately took to the sport. "Ain't no doubt in my mind that he was going to be a champion," said Melvin "Mr. Mel" Carter, a 76-year-old trainer at the gym where such talk is now standard; one former fighter, Will Morris, said Turpin would have been a legend.

Turpin also was a loner who some relatives said retreated even more after his mother's death. And yet he talked about her constantly, asking relatives whether she would have been proud of his boxing career and telling friends how much he wanted to be reunited with her, to be under her wing. He talked about getting rich and building a big house where his brothers and younger sister, his nieces and nephews could be with him all the time. And he was obsessed with giving his daughter a better life.

"The Contender" seemed to offer such an opportunity, so in early June, Turpin, Mack and Custus went to a tryout. Custus said producers were interested in both fighters, but Mack was too heavy for a show that would feature 158-pounders, and only Turpin earned a callback.

Custus worried about Turpin being away by himself for the first time and also that Turpin would fall under someone else's sway since trainers would not be allowed to accompany their fighters during the show. But in July, Turpin set off for a round of interviews that Burnett said included two psychological screenings and five hours of written tests. Of about 60 fighters, 16, including Turpin, were brought back for the six-week taping in August.

"He was a happy guy -- he left happy, started happy," co-executive producer Jeff Wald said. "He never gave us a day's worth of problems."

Family members said Turpin was initially uncomfortable in the reality show dynamic but grew more comfortable by the end. In contrast, friends said he told them he was racially taunted by one contestant, whom Turpin later confronted off-camera. The trainer and a cousin said Turpin called and told them he wanted to leave. Other friends said Turpin told them he felt less like he was in training camp and more like he was in jail.

Burnett said he didn't know about Turpin having any racial confrontations; Turpin was secretive and seemed to take great pleasure in evading security, Burnett said.

"The Contender" was supposed to debut in November, but the feud with Fox's show led to a delay, and then the show was again pushed back from January to February and then March as NBC searched for a time slot. The contestants had signed contracts not to talk about the show's results and not to fight again until every episode had been broadcast; in the meantime, they were paid up to $1,500 a week to continue their training.

Friends and family who describe Turpin after he got back from California seem to be talking about two different people. Several friends said he seemed less interested in boxing and put on a considerable amount of weight, up to 20 or 30 pounds -- a problem he had always encountered between fights -- and he began going out and partying.

Others say he told them how badly he wanted to fight. "The money they gave him, the stipends they gave him wasn't enough to keep his drive as a fighter," Custus said. "It's like torquing up a racecar, just torquing it up and not letting it take off. It's like holding back all this thrust. It's gotta go somewhere."

Turpin told at least 10 family members and friends that he had advanced to the show's final and would have a chance to win the million dollars, and he introduced himself to girls by saying "I'm NBC," or "I've got NBC money."

Burnett will not say how Turpin fared in the tournament but indicated that, in addition to the finalists, eight boxers would be brought back to fight before the main event.

In the week before his death, Turpin twice left a training camp with Custus and three fighters in the Poconos, telling Mack that he couldn't get focused and wanted to go home, was ready to leave. Custus and the show's producers said he left the camp to tend to a personal matter. Turpin's girlfriend has declined all interview requests, putting out a statement that said the couple had their issues, but that they had "more love than issues."

The night he died Turpin called a friend, Donnell McGriff, and promised that after that night he would stop partying for good. He had already called Custus, the trainer, and they had made plans for Custus to bring him back to the Poconos the following morning. He went to a club, met a local rapper and told her that "everybody gonna know me, I'm gonna be the champion of the world," Walker said.

A few hours later he was dead.

The funeral was held in a neighborhood church, attracting hundreds of mourners, including 12 fighters from "The Contender," and a host of television producers and executives. A continuous loop of footage of Turpin played on a television placed in a stairwell. The TV showed him running, Rocky-like, up the Philadelphia Art Museum's steps.

Outside the church, Stallone said the tragedy spoke to the fact that the show's contestants lived in "such a real world . . . real flesh-and-blood guys, you know, real salt of the earth men."