David Tua fought for the first time in New Zealand since December 9, 1994 (he kayoed Cecil Coffee, in round one) when he beat American, Talmadge Griffis, in the tenth and final round at the Waitakere Trust Stadium, on Thursday, March 31.
Dave weighted in at 114kg compared to his opponent's 94kg, and still looked a bit soft around the middle but expects to be down another 4kg before his next bout in June.
Tua, raised in South Auckland, but born in Samoa, hopes to get one more chance at a world title shot, and with the dearth of talent in the heavyweight division he could well do it.
The fight itself rapidly developed into a pattern for its entirety, with Griffis back-pedalling at a furious pace, pecking out with his left hand, while Tua followed in relentless pursuit.
To be honest, there wasn't a worthwhile punch landed in the first three rounds and the fight didn't really come alive until the fifth. In this round Tua actually launched an attack that briefly saw him airborne! But it wasn't until the last seconds of the 10th round that David was able to catch up with his opponent when he backed him into a corner and cut loose with a salvo that had the 4000-strong crowd roaring. Referee Lance Revill jumped in and stopped it when Griffis ceased to fight back. With only 15 seconds of the bout to go, some of Griffis' corner questioned the stoppage, although it was noticeable that Griffis wasn't one of them! He has now only won two of his last eight fights while Tua's record improves to 46-3.
In the main prelim, former NZ super-heavyweight amateur champion, Faii Falamoe, and Tua's American sparring partner, Tipton Walker, kept touching gloves, smiling and nodding at each other after any punches landed. There was mass confusion at the end of the eight-rounder when the judges' score were announced as 78-78, 77-77, and 80-72 in favour of Falamoe. A New Zealand Professional Boxing Association official then rectified it to a majority draw. Not that anybody cared.
In another bizarre incident, Moroni Schwalger came under some heavy punishment from Rico Chong Nee in the third round of a cruiserweight contest, when the referee halted proceedings and gave Schwalger a standing eight count; only the standing eight count does not exist in the NZPBA rules. Chong Nee won by a TKO in the next round anyway.
Steve Heremaia caught Corey Burton with an overhand right in the second round that dropped him for an eight-count, in a light-middleweight fight scheduled for four rounds. Corey made it up on shaky legs only for the corner to throw in the towel.
Evergreen Sean Sullivan lost on a split decision over eight rounds to another veteran, Colin Hunia, in the best fight on the programme. This is the first time I have ever seen the normally super fit Sullivan exhausted at the finish. Cruiserweights.
Former NZ amateur international, Daniella Smith (who I believe weighed in at 68kg) out-pointed kick-boxer Sue Glassy over four rounds of a willing affair.
Australia's world champion featherweight, Sharon Anyos was held to a surprise four-round split decision by Christina Tai having her first pro fight.
Murphy's law: The last three fights mentioned were easily the best of the night – yet weren't televised while the others were.
It looked to be all on at the Auckland Boxing Association Stadium on Thursday, March 24 when incensed fans stormed the ring. Focus of their anger was Shane Wijohn who had just kneed Elisara Sii Uta after the two continued to fight after the bell rang finishing six of a scheduled 10-rounder. In the heat of the moment ex-kickboxer Wijohn reverted to his former code kneeing Sii Uta three times.
The response from the crowd was immediate, with a dozen of Sii Uta's fans (led by his brother) rushing to ringside while others threw missiles into the ring. Lucky, security was quickly on hand and Wijohn's coach, Jason Suttie, cooled things down when he spoke to the irate fans in Samoan.
Referee Peter Fluerty was going to call the whole thing off and declare a "no contest", but after a mid-ring conference the boxers agreed to behave and fight on. Allowing the fight to proceed was a wise move, as the earlier bad feelings had settled down by the time the bout finished.
Elisara was awarded a split decision to win the South Seas heavyweight title. I thought Elisara (104kg) won clearly as Shane (113.3kg) fought a strange fight continually looking to his corner in the manner of a contestant from TV's "Price is Right." In fact his cornerman threw more punches than he did! It must be pointed out that Wijohn appeared to score a clean knockdown in the second round only for the referee to call it a slip.
In another heavyweight bout, Ave Latau (108.5kg) beat Robert Sue (106.2kg) which saw both contestants making their pro debuts. Here again the referee seemed to miss a knockdown when Latau briefly hit the canvas in the opening canto.
In the evening's semi-pro fight, Maka Sapoulu (72kg) had a first round TKO win over Mark Dixon (68.3kg). Dixon, 38-years-old, and having his first fight for 20 years should think about his future in the sport.
The crowd was the smallest I've seen for a pro-am tournament at the ABA.
Record collectors please note: some internet sites have Chancy Welliver defeating Elisara Sii Uta on the 24/2/05 when in fact Sii Uta won a split decision. This contest was promoted by the ABA under the auspices of the New Zealand Boxing Federation, one of 23 organisations permitted to promote professional boxing by the NZ Department of Internal Affairs (ridiculous I know). None of these organisations can change the result of a rival body.
Also note on Welliver's record that he won a close four-round decision over Oscar Talemira on the 27/1/05 not a TKO victory.
Any queries contact Johnny Lloyd, C/- ABA Stadium, 1 Ngahuru Street, Eden Terrace, Auckland, New Zealand, Phone: 09-307 0720.
29 Aprilth 2005
New Zealand heavyweight champion, Shane Cameron, passed the "acid test" when he won the vacant International Boxing Federation Australasian heavyweight title.
The Kiwi fighter stopped NZ-born Australian heavyweight champion Colin Wilson when Wilson's corner men threw in the towel during the seventh round at the ASB Stadium in the plush Auckland suburb of Kohimarama on Friday April 29th.
The nuggetty Cameron (107kg) took the fight to Wilson (113kg), pounding him with body shots and hooks to the liver then going upstairs to land uppercuts and straight rights.
Shane didn't seem too troubled by Wilson's awkward southpaw stance. And as the bout wore on he landed more frequently until he dropped the tough miner, now based in Emerald, in the seventh round only for the towel to come in almost simultaneously.
Cameron's corner was ecstatic with his twelfth straight win as was the crowd.
In the main support, Dale Crowe of the USA, who was in New Zealand as Cameron's sparring partner, won an untidy six-round heavyweight clash with Auckland's Shane Wijohn. In the fourth round Wijohn clipped Crowe with a straight right lead and the Yank touched down briefly but referee Steve Marshall failed to put a count on him.
That and several other good right hands leads should have won the fight for Wijohn but the local seemed to lose concentration in the final round, which saw Crowe come home with a storming finish and win the bout.
Australian- based Samoan Lawrence Tauasa (ex-Aussie cruiserweight champion) had a fast six-rounder with Auckland-based Samoan Eilisara Sii Uta.
The two of similar height and build went toe-to-toe throughout the bout. Tuasa's technical skills and superior ringcraft (in fact he was by far the best boxer on display throughout the night) earned him a points win.
In a huge upset, highly promising welterweight Steve Heremaia was outpointed by veteran David Wiremu over four rounds. After nearly scoring a knockout in the second round and inflicting a blood nose on his opponent, Heremaia never seemed to get out of first gear, leaving it to the judges who scored it a split decision win to Wiremu.
Maka Sapoulu having only his third fight ever, went up against former New Zealand amateur and professional champion Santos Pakau. Sapoulu nearly pulled off an upset when he decked Pakau, who appeared to be sleepwalking in the first round. With his attention now fully focused, Santos opened up in the second round and had Maka in all sorts of bother when the referee stepped in and halted proceedings. This was a middleweight affair and definitely was not a good matchmaking.
With 23 separate associations licensed to promote professional boxing in New Zealand it is sometimes hard to gather results but I generally do a pretty good job in ferreting them out. Here are a few for record compilers: At the ASB Stadium on April 9th, Geoff Speedie (95kg) outpointed Michael Casey (105kg) over four rounds. At the Waitakere Stadium on April 30th, Shane "Choppa" Chapman (73kg) knocked out Charles August (73kg) in the second round.
On May 7th at the Headhunters Motorcycle Club in Auckland, Steve Anderson outpointed Fijian, Jim Leno, in a middleweight three-rounder. In another three-rounder, former New Zealand amateur heavyweight, Alex Mene, outpointed tough Karl Kemara.
These matches were held in conjunction with kickboxing tournaments.
