A boxing tournament playing on traditional rivalries between Samoa and Tonga backfired when a scrap broke out in the crowd after a Tongan got in the ring and attacked the Samoan contingent.
The incident occurred during the last of 12 fights in Manurewa shortly before midnight on Friday.
Boxing trainer and event organiser Ofisa Vili told the Herald yesterday that a Tongan man, aged in his 20s, had leaped into the ring at the start of the fifth round.
"He started running around in the ring ... He started pushing me and one of the corner boys."
Mr Vili said it appeared the Tongan was unhappy that the Samoan boxer Bob Gasio was leading on points and getting it over his Tongan rival Sinela Fifita.
The man was ejected from the ring and taken outside by bouncers but the incident set off a fight between about 20 spectators, mainly Samoans and Tongans.
Mr Vili said the fight lasted only about five minutes and no one was injured.
He closed the professional boxing match and by the time the police arrived everything was under control.
The tournament had been touted as an interisland showdown, reviving ancient rivalries between Samoa and Tonga.
Mr Vili said previous tournaments had not led to any trouble and he blamed "one idiot" rather than any tensions between the ethnic groups.
However, Devida Hati, who runs the venue in the Manurewa netball hall, felt the Samoan-Tongan rivalry had fuelled the ruckus. "They don't like each other very much."
Mrs Hati said it was not a big fight and the clashes were mostly "verbals".
She did not think it wise to highlight the rivalries in future.
