 |
Sports correspondent & historian with |
A select group of Western Bay amateur boxers are in the final stages of preparation for the biggest competition of the season.
Tauranga Boxing Club, Bay Boxfit at Mount Maunganui, and Tauranga Boxing Academy will head to the River City with their best pugilistic talent in pursuit of BNZ national honours at the Boxing New Zealand National Championships in Whanganui next week.
For the first-timers, there will be a mixture of apprehension and excitement as they venture into an unknown environment.
The more seasoned Western Bay boxers will scan the BNZ website entries, hoping for a favourable draw that will see them boxing on Saturday night’s finals card.
A few weeks ago, I got thinking about the relationship between amateur and professional boxing in the 21st century.
From the formation of the New Zealand Boxing Association in 1902 until the 1960s, the national body was responsible for both amateur and professional boxing. The best halls in the country would host professional boxing contests, with local amateur fighters vying for spots on the undercards.
The South Pacific Boxing Association was formed after a 1996 Supreme Court decision broke the monopoly the NZBA held on professional boxing.
That court decision changed the professional arm of the sport in New Zealand forever.
Profit became the driving force as the South Pacific Boxing Association licensed promoters, many of whom were focused on making as much money as possible, often at the expense of the boxers.
As the South Pacific Boxing Association tightened its grip on professional boxing, so began the influx of the many sharks who infest professional boxing in Aotearoa today.
Stories of poorly trained and unfit boxers, mismatches, and promoters skipping town without paying outstanding bills abound among stakeholders genuinely interested in the sport.
My biggest problem with the professional game is that the people who usually get the least out of it are the boxers. And don’t get me started on the Kiwi tomato cans who are dispatched across the ditch to pad the records of rising Aussie prospects.
By contrast, New Zealand amateur boxing is today well organised and disciplined, with a defined pathway to elite international competition.
From learning the fundamentals, new recruits progress to their first bout, and then on to regional competition. Regional championships and the Golden Gloves are the next steps on the competitive pathway.
National championship success opens the door to international competition and, for the very best, participation at the Olympic Games, World Championships, and Commonwealth Games.
There is no better example of the BNZ pathway than the success of three Tauranga Boxing Club fighters who travelled from the novice ranks to Commonwealth Games selection.
David Aloua and Anthony Taylor fought at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India, and Ariane Nicholson boxed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
With gold medals on the line in the Cadet, Junior, Youth, and Elite male and female divisions, there is another important piece of the BNZ pathway on offer in Whanganui.
At the conclusion of the championships, the BNZ national selectors will name development squads to receive specialist coaching over the next 12 months.
While boxing is not everyone’s cup of tea, the sport delivers valuable life skills to many young men and women from the other side of the tracks. Timekeeping, fitness, motivation, respect, and, most importantly, self-belief and self-confidence are among the life skills boxers learn in gyms of combat around the country.
The vast majority of amateur boxing participants leave the sport as better citizens within the wider community as a result of the lessons learned through boxing.
