Northland boxer Lani Daniels’ world title fight to be televised

Northland boxer Lani Daniels (right) will have her IBF World Heavyweight title fight against Alrie Meleisea televised by Sky TV.

Northland boxer Lani Daniels can show off her skills to the whole of the country when her IBF World Heavyweight title fight against Alrie Meleisea is televised on Sky TV in May.

The promoter for the Daniels v Alrie Meleisea bout for the IBF World Heavyweight title fight, Vasco Kovacevic, has arranged for the historic event to be televised, with Sky TV picking up the bout.

Auckland’s Eventfinda Stadium (North Shore Events Centre) will play host to the fight on May 27 for the first-ever IBF World Heavyweight title, and possibly the WBO World title to be added into the mix.

Kovacevic, who is also Alrie Meleisea’s trainer and manager, said historically, most of the boxing that has been televised in New Zealand has either been with Sky Sports or on the pay-per-view service Sky Arena. It’s only recently that boxing has been televised free to air under Duco Events with TVNZ and TV3. The two world title fights with Geovana Peres were both televised in 2019 on Sky Sports. A regularly televised New Zealand kickboxing event, King in the Ring, was hosted by Sky Sports. However, the promoters eventually moved the event to TVNZ Duke.

The upside with Sky Sports is you can watch the fight even if you are not a Sky customer, with the Sky Sports Now website. On top of that, the event is usually repeated at least three times during the week, in case people missed the initial broadcasting, he said.

Tickets to the event will be going on sale soon. GA tickets will be sold on Eventfinda and corporate tables will be on the RLCA website (Red Line Combat Academy).

The news comes just days after it was announced that fellow Northland fighter Daniella Smith will be inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame (IWBHF) in October.

The only downside is that due to it being a women’s boxing event, the organisers don’t get enough sponsorship. Smith is guaranteed to be inducted, but she will have to pay for her own flights and accommodation if she wants to be inducted in person in Las Vagas.

The International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame induction is a special ceremony this year, because it will not only celebrate its 10th anniversary, but the Women’s Boxing Archive Network (WBAN) will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. Both were created by retired legendary boxer Sue Fox.

Smith (Ngapuhi) was a true trailblazer for women’s boxing in New Zealand. Before making her professional debut in 2005, she was already a four-time New Zealand amateur champion. She also won the Oceania title, which qualified her to compete at the 2002 world championships in Turkey.

Just a year after her debut, she won her first New Zealand national title as a professional, becoming the second woman to win a New Zealand professional title. She won her second Kiwi title in 2008, becoming the first female to win two NZ titles. This was history-making as she set the record for most New Zealand titles for a women boxer — a record that did not get broken for 14 years and then only by another Northland boxer, Mea Motu, last year.