Northland boxer Lani Daniels vies to become first female to win NZ national Heavyweight title

Lani Daniels looks set to continue her successful return to the professional ring after two and a half years. Photo / Calden Jamieson Photography

Northland boxer Lani Daniels is preparing to fight it out to become the first female to win the Pro Box NZ national heavyweight title.

Daniels (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) is set to go head to head in the ring against Sequita Hemingway (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāi Tūhoe) for the title on June 25 in Putaruru.

The two already squared off on April 30, when Daniels claimed victory by unanimous decision in her first professional boxing fight in the last two and a half years.

For Hemingway - a former professional rugby player, the defeat was the first professional loss of her career.

Before the clash, Daniels was ranked ninth in the World Boxing Association (WBA) but the win saw her rank change to first on the independent computerised ranking website Boxrec. She overtook her opponent's third-place ranking which stayed put.

The number one Boxrec spot will open a lot more doors globally for Daniels in the form of possible world title opportunities and increased rankings in the four sanctioning bodies of WBA, World Boxing Council (WBC); International Boxing Federation (IBF), and World Boxing Organisation (WBO).

Daniels' accomplishments include being New Zealand Amateur champion in 2014 and again in 2015. She was a former national NZPBA Light Heavyweight champion, and national Pro Box NZ Super Middleweight champion.

A pair of professional title wins made Daniels the first female boxer to win two national titles from two different weight divisions and commissioning bodies.

In 2019, she made history in the first-ever Kiwi versus Kiwi boxing fight for a world title as she battled Geovana Peres to become the WBO World Light Heavyweight champion.

The June encounter between Daniels and Hemingway may hold some of the tenacious fighting witnessed in April's fight.

A fight report described how Lani "simply outboxed her opponent" as Hemingway missed shots and Daniels landed "powerful" punches.

"At the start of every round, Lani would almost run at her opponent, just ready to get the next round started.

"She would move around a lot, but there were moments where Sequita would stay stationary in the corner in hopes to begin a brawl, but even then Lani would outbox and land combinations to the body."

However, Hemingway wasn't a passive opponent.

"Giving credit where it's due, Sequita came to fight. She didn't make it easy for Lani. When she landed, it would hit Lani like a train.

"Especially when she landed the left hook to the face, you can tell that Lani could feel it. Lani showed great stamina as Sequita was extremely fatigued in the last two rounds, with Lani's punch output being great."