CHILD'S PLAY: Amateur Sam Nicol can, no doubt, teach me a few things about ringcraft. PHOTO/Warren Buckland
I CERTAINLY had a score to settle with Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule for having a laugh at my and a Hawke's Bay Today photographer's expense several summers ago.
The Hastings District Council had sent out an invite to us to attend a fundraising auction with 2005 US Open golf champion Michael Campbell for the benefit of the Hawke's Bay Opera House.
I have lost count of the number of years gone by but suffice it to say the auction was held at the Te Awa Farm Winery more than a decade ago.
In the invite, the council outlined it was a "black-tie" function.
Not happy with the dress code at all at the height of summer, we dutifully turned up in black ties only to find Yule walk up to us on a table to confess they had just had a joke at our expense because no one else was wearing a tie, let alone a black one.
He laughed so hard he broke a couple of empty wine glasses on our table.
So when I heard the WBO heavyweight title belt was passing through Burger King Hastings on Wednesday my hopes were high Yule was going to be among invited guests.
I thought why not shape up for a photograph with the gold-plated, Swarovski crystal-encrusted belt to remind him of that embarrassing moment at the winery.
As it turned out Yule had "done a runner".
"The mayor is out of town today, unfortunately," said Duco Events corporate liaison manager Greg McCalman who has been promoting the professional world heavyweight bout between Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz Jr at Vector Arena, Auckland, on December 10.
But Yule's office says he was involved with an all-day council meeting on Wednesday and yesterday, for the record, the mayor was touring Kaikoura with the NZ Civil Defence wallahs.
Consequently I found myself staring down amateur boxing prodigy Sam Nicol, of Taradale, who no doubt can teach me a few things about ringcraft.
Jokes aside, McCalman says the belt is worth $8000 and the jewels encrusted in them the work of world-renowned Austrian designers but everyone knows the fight is a precursor to someone raking in mega bucks.
The boxing world, especially the professional heavyweight one, can be a pretty murky one at the best of times but the impact of having the first world professional belt of any description touring the country wasn't lost on a reasonably reserved teenager such as Nicol.
"It's good to hold the belt because so many greats of the world have held the belt," said the 15-year-old from Napier Boys' High School.
He named Englishman Tyson Fury and Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko but other notables, dating back to 1989, include Americans Michael Moorer and Riddick Bowe.
Fury vacated the title last month after cancelling his rematch with Klitschko for a second time, citing depression after a positive test for cocaine.
The WBO, which stands for World Boxing Organisation, is one of the four major governing bodies in professional boxing and boasts certified world champions in 17 different weight classes. The other three professional governing bodies that sanction fights are the World Boxing Association (WBA), the International Boxing Federation (IBF) and the World Boxing Council (WBC).
Nicol, a Hastings Giants Boxing Academy member who trains under Craig McDougall, is one of many youngsters around the world hoping to lift a title on the global stage.
But let's get to the point on whether the Government or Auckland council's tourism arm should have forked out for the event, instead of the Samoa Government which coughed up $140,000 for international exposure.
I feel that risking ratepayers' money, especially in a city where people are struggling to find a deposit for homes let alone buy them, is ill-advised for a bulging city that has no qualms luring visitors. Nationally, after the recent quake, it'll pay to sit tight until there's some recovery.
Duco went into the promotion knowing it would have to dig deep.
Besides, it's charging $59.99 for pay-per-view TV subscriptions of the fight, a notable increase from $39.99 and $49.99 on previous Parker bouts.
Yule concurs with me but hastens to add it's no different to any other event so there's a need to weigh up options based on what a city or region has to gain from such an investment.
"Generally that's so because it's no different to say Adele coming to Auckland and her three sellout shows going within 20 minutes," he says, adding that for the Parker fight TV channels and promoters have to be factored in.
Yule says an event like this tends to "do its own thing".
On the flip side, the Hastings council is getting behind the annual hockey international festival because it sees potential in using it to market the region globally.
His ultimate goal is to harness regular TV exposure for it.