Ronnie Nathanielsz, Sports journalist and commentator, Died at 81

  Sports, Writer

Ronald Fredrick William Nathanielsz was born on November 2, 1935, in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and died on November 11, 2016, in Burlingame, California, United States.

He was popularly known as Ronnie Nathanielsz.

He was a Sri-Lanka-born Filipino sports journalist, commentator, and analyst.

Nathanielsz was the eldest son of Elmo Nathanielsz and his wife Phyllis (née Labrooy) of Colombo.

Nathanielsz and his brother-in-law, Annesley ‘Bunny’ Joseph, belonged to the same boxing club in their youth.

Together they trained under former Ceylon flyweight champion Henry Young, who thought that Ronnie had the potential to become an Olympic boxer.

But, at age 17 or 18, Ronnie was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat, ending his boxing career

He experienced chest pains on November 3, 2016, while en route to Las Vegas, where he was scheduled to join a TV broadcast panel, to cover Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Jessie Vargas on November 5.

Nathanielsz was then brought to the intensive care unit of the Mills-Peninsula Medical Centers in Burlingame, California.

Ronnie Nathanielsz later died a cardiac arrest.

Ronnie Nathanielsz passed away at 81 years old.