City Kickboxing is leading support efforts for the family of the promising fighter from their gym who died from an alleged assault in Auckland CBD.
Fau Vake’s death was confirmed by CKB on Sunday after he was taken to Auckland Hospital the weekend prior in a critical condition following an alleged attack on Symonds St while waiting for a taxi in the early hours of the morning.
The renowned fighting gym has acted as the Vake family’s representatives during the tough ordeal as he spent a week on life support before his eventual death.
On Monday, CKB revealed on social media they are creating T-Shirts ‘in celebration of Fau Vake’ with all profits going to the 25-year-old’s grieving family. Today, the gym shared on it’s Instagram story a scroll through of all the pre-orders already submitted by those supporting the cause, showing the large amount of love the community has for the Vake whānau.
The gym also promoted a Givealitte page which has raised over $40,000 for the Vake family, with 626 parties donating in the last two days.
Police have confirmed four men – three aged 29-years-old and a 32-year-old – have been charged over the incident on a number of offences ranging from common assault to injuring with intent.
Police said more charges are likely to be added following Vake’s death.
While police did not describe the alleged assault, CKB’s founder Eugene Bareman along with star fighter and UFC champion Israel Adesanya released a statement shortly after Vake was identified as the alleged victim calling for harsher penalties for “coward punches”.
Last week, Bareman told 1 NEWS he and the rest of the CKB family can’t fathom why such penalties haven’t already been introduced.
"To be fair, there's been a couple of other gym members that since Israel was a victim of this crime have also been a victim of this crime themselves,” Bareman told 1 NEWS.
"Our gym only represents a small cross-section of society so what's happening in the wider reaches of society if in our gym we know of a couple of instances of this happening?
"We understand, more than your average person, that if you go up behind someone and hit them while they're unaware there's only one thing you're trying to do — you're trying to inflict as much harm as you can on that person as you possibly can and, ultimately, what you're trying to do is kill them.”
An online petition calling for harsher laws against coward punches has registered over 17,000 signatures online as well since Vake’s death.
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