Rangataua o Aotearoa (RoA) martial arts athletes (from left) Ravyn Simpson, Aronui Maidens and Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai are training throughout the holiday period for some big bouts over the next few months. Photo / John Gillies
Rangataua o Aotearoa (RoA) martial arts athletes (from left) Ravyn Simpson, Aronui Maidens and Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai are training throughout the holiday period for some big bouts over the next few months. Photo / John Gillies
Four Tairāwhiti martial arts athletes from the Rangataua o Aotearoa club are training hard for big bouts over the next few months.
Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai, Ravyn Simpson, Jada-Shay Pomana and Aronui Maidens are all scheduled to compete in Te Ihi a Tu, a Muay Thai fight night taking place atGisborne’s Showgrounds Events Centre in early March.
Sixteen bouts are planned for the occasion. Mackey-Huriwai, Simpson, Pomana and Maidens are set to figure in feature bouts that will help them prepare for the international section of the Muay Thai Australia Nationals in Melbourne in April and the World Muay Thai Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, in June.
But they are likely to be in action before the Gisborne event. The New Zealand Muay Thai nationals are scheduled for February, and qualification for the world champs is the prize on offer.
The Showgrounds event in March is expected to include three tag-team bouts, with teams of three or four squaring off. The teams will draw on participants in the Rangataua o Aotearoa (RoA) 12-week challenge where those taking part learn Muay Thai techniques from scratch.
The challenge entrants are already in training, and RoA coach Melissa Mackey-Huriwai says they will get a holiday break of just one week – from Christmas to New Year’s Day.
“Then it’s back into it,” she said.
The challenge started with 46 participants ... “We made the first cut last week.”
Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai and Simpson both won their bouts in Mana FC XI – Whakapapa, a September event in Auckland that set out to blend elite Muay Thai combat with Māori pride, prestige and cultural storytelling.
Simpson, 18, won the vacant Muay Thai New Zealand female lightweight title at this event. She will defend it at the Gisborne fight night in March.
Ishtar Mackey-Huriwai, 19, will defend her New Zealand female featherweight title, which she won in Gisborne in March this year. That followed her appearance at the Paris Olympics in August last year, when she took part in the women’s Under-23, Under-60kg division of the Muay Thai demonstration event.
Rangataua o Aotearoa martial arts athlete Jada-Shay Pomana is training at the Soma Fight Club in Bali as she prepares for some big bouts in the months ahead.
Pomana, 20, will go up against an Auckland fighter for a vacant title. Last month in Phuket, Thailand, Pomana won a Bangla Boxing Stadium competition for women in the +70kg category.
“Jada-Shay is in Bali, training at the Soma Fight Club,” Melissa Mackey-Huriwai said.
“It’s a huge facility, catering for everyone, and great for strength and conditioning, and mobility. Jada works at the gym to help cover her costs.”
Maidens, 14, is aiming to be the first holder of the female youth Under-54kg title.
All four would train right through the holiday period, every day, morning and afternoon, said Melissa Mackey-Huriwai, who had her final fight early this year. It was at the Muay Thai world championships in Bangkok, Thailand, where she won the master women’s U66kg division.
Now she concentrates on coaching.
Her father, Taka Mackey, was among the first students of John Tahu (now deceased), who founded the first RoA club in Whanganui in 1976.
Mackey founded Gisborne’s RoA club in 1977. Rangataua o Aotearoa means “a group of warriors from New Zealand”. It is instructed in te reo Māori and incorporates kickboxing and Muay Thai.
Kickboxing differs from Muay Thai in that it forbids the use of elbows. Practitioners of Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing, use their fists, elbows, shins and knees.
