He had high blood pressure and he was overweight, but that didn't stop Bradley Rone from stepping into the boxing ring in Cedar City, desperate for the prize money that would buy his plane ticket to Ohio to attend his mother's funeral.

The six-round heavyweight match on July 18, 2003, would be Rone's last.

The 259-pound journeyman boxer collapsed in the first round from heart failure, according to court documents. In a tragic twist of fate, Rone flew home in the cargo section of a plane to be buried along side his mother in Ohio in a double funeral.

Rone wasn't the best of boxers. By the time he had stepped into the ring that July, Rone had lost 26 consecutive fights, including five by knockout.

Rone's family members say he had no business stepping into that ring, although he was licensed as a boxer by the Utah Department of Commerce's Pete Suazo Utah Athletic Commission, which had regulated the fight.

In a wrongful-death suit filed against the event organizers and the state of Utah, Rone's sister said athletic commission officials broke several of their own rules in allowing Rone to fight. Among the rules broken were the fact that Rone had lost more than six consecutive fights, did not have an exam conducted by a physician, and no written certification was provided by a doctor saying Rone was fit to compete, despite being visibly overweight.

During oral arguments before the Utah Supreme Court on Thursday, an attorney for Rone's sister argued that the state should be held liable for the errors it made in allowing Rone to fight.

"We believe this death was unnecessary and preventable," Robert Sykes said.

A district judge has already dismissed the claims against the state, citing governmental immunity.

On Thursday, Assistant Utah Attorney General Barry Lawrence argued that Utah law protects the state from such claims because the Pete Suazo Utah Athletic Commission was providing a governmental regulatory role that only the government could provide. Lawrence acknowledged that the state did allow the July 18, 2003, fight to go forward but that the government should not be dissuaded from regulating a sport like boxing out of fear of liability.

"If there are issues of safety and health, we want the government to be involved," Lawrence said.

Sykes argued that the regulation of boxing is not considered a core governmental function and under the law the state should be open to liability.

Chief Justice Christine Durham pointed out that driving is not a core governmental function, yet the state issues and regulates driver's licenses.

Sykes told the justices that the dismissal of the wrongful death suit should be overturned to give Rone's family the ability to seek justice for his death.

The high court will issue a written opinion on the matter in the coming months.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com