Boxing: Fighters welcome hometown bouts

Napier Boxing Club's Derek Tuakeu (blue) keeps Arvind Nair, of Auckland, at a jabbing distance in the feature amateur bout of the Hastings Giants Boxing Academy promotion.

It has been a barren patch for more than a decade but the kindling in amateur grassroots boxing has been set alight.

"It was the first time for the boys to box in their hometown after we spent the last three seasons travelling around the country," says Craig McDougal, the Hastings Giants Boxing Academy head coach, after hosting a nine-bout tournament at Hastings Intermediate School last Saturday.

"It's great for our young men to have the courage to do what they know in front of familiar faces," says McDougal, emphasising it was the first amateur promotion here since John Healy retired as coach in the early 2000s.

In fact, the bigger picture is to host the national championship here in a couple of years as it would be ideal for preparing Bay boxers to accrue at least 20 bouts under their belt.

"I can't even remember if it [nationals] was ever held here in my time," he says after Queenstown hosted last year's event and this year's championship will be staged in Invercargill in a fortnight.

Last Saturday all bouts, including two exhibition ones, were three by three-minute rounds.

In the feature fight, Derek Tuakeu (Napier Boxing Club) beat Arvind Nair (Pacific Boxing Club) by TKO in the second round after the Aucklander popped his shoulder. "It was a tough first round for Arvind but he got himself out of trouble," McDougal said.

In a novice bout, host club boxer Kal Walker (fourth bout), 18, beat Palmerston North's Luke Pearce (second fight), 22, on a unanimous points decision.

"Luke stuck to him with straight lefts all the way through."

In the exhibition clash between middleweight Alastair Young (Hastings) and welterweight Latu Talu (Naenae), McDougal says the latter's 10-year experience was an ideal lesson for his fighter on how boxers need to be "amazingly fit".

Talu is a coach who has modelled his gym under the direction of former national champion trainer Billy Graham based in Porirua.

In the the other exhibition bout between featherweight Mathew Lindsay (Hastings), 15, and lightweight Marcus Petersen (Napier), 18, the former employed straight punching but the latter's weight, age and experience was undeniable.