Black belt returns to settle grudge match

It was always going to take something special to lure Mt Maunganui black belt Warren Steiner out of retirement - and teenage Samoan Olympic hopeful Kaino Thomsen-Fuataga has given the 36-year-old all the incentive he needs tomorrow at Tauranga's QEII Youth Centre.
Steiner last year won his sixth New Zealand Taekwondo Federation heavyweight title in a controversy-laden final against Thomsen-Fuataga, and then promptly retired from the sport.
The teenage Samoan took the loss hard and in recent months has been publicly baiting Steiner, who fights for Tauranga's Team KO, calling for a rematch.
So Steiner has shrugged off a knee infection and put on hold his preparations for an upcoming Mixed Martial Arts debut in Auckland to oblige his young rival.
The pair are set to square off again tomorrow afternoon.
"I'd retired from competition after that win last year but the Samoan's been calling me out. I shouldn't really get tied up in all that because I won last year fair and square in most people's eyes, but I don't want no one talking smack about me. Essentially, he's twisted my arm."
Steiner won the open men's black belt heavyweight gold in a raucous final against Thomsen-Fuataga. The final was locked up at 8-all after the regulation three two-minute rounds, forcing the crowd on to their feet as the fighters went into sudden-death golden point, the first fighter to land a scoring kick getting gold.
Both appeared to land simultaneous blows but the three corner judges deemed Steiner deflected his opponent's strike with his forearm.
Thomsen-Fuataga's coach, Brisbane-based Master Frank Frost, was incensed with the call that denied his fighter gold, kicking his chair across the floor in disgust and confronting the three corner umpires.
Steiner has been back training with Team KO's Master, Kesi O'Neill, for a month. Except for the knee infection he's remained in peak physical shape preparing for his first MMA fight on July 2.
He said O'Neill had been pushing him hard to get him fight-ready.
"I stayed training but I've had one competitive tournament in the past 12 months so it's been a change from the MMA, where my kickboxing background has come to the fore and there's a lot more grappling involved.
"But I've always had that connection with taekwondo and all roads eventually lead back to the Master."
O'Neill is loathe to label tomorrow's heavyweight clash a grudge match, and both fighters need to advance past preliminary fights anyway to force a re-match.
"The Samoan boy's made a few comments on Facebook about how he wants to come back for another crack at Warren - it's almost like he won't be satisfied until he avenges that loss because he feels like he missed out," O'Neill said.
"It is sport and it is competitive but it'd be stupid if he's coming all this way just to try and prove a point."