- Boxing champ, 27, found next to boxer friend’s body in Thai hotel
- Jayson Tonkin in coma in Thai hospital ICU
- Police found ketamine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia in room
Australian boxing champion Jayson Tonkin is in a Thai hospital intensive care unit after being found next to the body of his dead boxing friend in a hotel room in the coastal resort city of Pattaya.
According to Pattaya City Police, the two men were found in a room on the fourth floor of the hotel at 12.10am on Wednesday allegedly with ‘ketamine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia’ on the table.
Staff at the Vogue Hotel in Pattaya ‘heard a commotion’ on the top floor and went to Room 2412 and found the deceased’s man’s ‘friend in a panic’ and allegedly ‘in a state of severe intoxication’.
Daily Mail Australia has confirmed the identity of the male boxer who died in the company of Muay Thai boxing champion Jayson Peter Tonkin as UK fighter Joshua Goldstone, 21, despite Thai media reports that it was Jayson himself who had passed away.
Goldstone was found shirtless and wearing black shorts and a waist bag. The commotion heard by hotel staff was reportedly Jayson shouting about the fact that the younger boxer had collapsed onto the floor.
Boxer Jayson Tonkin (above) is unconscious in ICU in a Thai hospital after he was found in a hotel room next to the body of his dead boxing friend alongside ketamine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia
The body of Tonkin’s younger boxing friend Joshua Goldstone was on the floor of the Pattaya hotel room and the boxer was allegedly screaming and intoxicated before he was taken to a Thai hospital and now lies in a coma
Tonkin, above in training in Hua Hin, was due to fight in the rescheduled bout in November, but it is now uncertain what state the 27-year-old who is in a coma will be by the date
Thai media reported that: ‘They went up to investigate and found the deceased’s friend panicking and shouting about why his friend was lying still.’
Muay Thai contacts said it was not clear ‘when or if’ Jayson would regain consciousness in the hospital ICU.
However, it is believed that police could charge him with consumption or possession of ketamine, a ‘schedule 2’ drug in Thailand which carries a penalty if convicted of one to 5 years in prison.
Tonkin, a middleweight Muay Thai fighter, opened up about his struggles with drugs – and in particular methamphetamine – in a podcast about mental health made earlier this year.
Tonkin, whose boxing nickname is ‘The Dingo’ flew to Thailand last month for a fight against WBC Muay Thai world number one middleweight champion, Tengnueng Sitjaesairoong.
Jayson Tonkin was in a coma in a Thai hospital ICU after being found next to the body of a dead UK boxer in a hotel room in the resort town of Pattaya
Police and hotel staff inside Room 2412 where they found Jayson Tonkin in an allegedly intoxicated state, his boxing friend Joshua Goldstone dead on the floor beside him and allegedly an amount of ketamine, cannabis and drug paraphernalia
Jayson Tonkin’s fight against Muay Thai world number one middleweight champion, Tengnueng Sitjaesairoong (above the opponents together) was postponed because of rain but now might have to be abandoned altogether
The Australian, originally from Manly in Sydney said he was looking forward to winning by knockout in the October 20 bout, which was subsequently cancelled due to monsoonal rains.
Tonkin, who moved in Thailand during his teen years, revealed in the podcast he had got into smoking ice via a Muay Thai trainer, said on Instagram , ‘I’m not really allowed to live here now. I get too lost in the madness’.
But he said he had been living and training in Hua Hin, a ‘quiet’ beach town southwest of Bangkok.
He was found with the body of Joshua Goldstone in the more cosmopolitan metropolis Pattaya on Wednesday .
‘Authorities performed first aid before transporting him to a nearby hospital’ Thai media reported.
On the podcast @TidesTalk, Tonkin opened up about smoking cannabis from the age of 17, and then getting into stronger drugs and starting to smoke ice.
His fight against against the champion Tengnueng had been rescheduled for November.
Jayson Tonkin has prior convictions in NSW for destroying property, blackening his face to commit an indictable offence and having custody of a knife in a public place.
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