Rotorua's Emile Richardson (left) came out swinging in his New Zealand Golden Gloves bout with Wellington's Ryan Scaife. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua's Emile Richardson (left) came out swinging in his New Zealand Golden Gloves bout with Wellington's Ryan Scaife. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua's Emile Richardson and Wellington's Ryan Scaife have gone head-to-head in the ring on multiple occasions.
On Saturday, the pair wrote the latest chapter in their budding rivalry at the New Zealand Golden Gloves in Rotorua. Up for grabs was not only the Golden Gloves title but also the numberone ranking in the Elite Men's 75kg division.
Scaife, the reigning national champion, held the top ranking until earlier this year when he was unable to attend a ranking tournament. He went into Saturday's bout desperate to take it back from Richardson.
In the first round, Scaife landed a number of shots, specifically targeting the body. In round two he piled on the pressure and after Richardson was forced by the referee to take multiple standing counts, Scaife was pronounced the winner.
He said his desire to reclaim the throne allowed him to enter the ring with renewed focus.
"It put me in kind of a different mindset, usually I just want to go smash them and I know I should beat them. Today I knew I had to box my best and have a solid plan. I went in there and it worked.
"I was landing good body shots which allowed me to establish my range. In the second round I knew he'd come on a bit more because I'd out-pointed him in the first. When he did, I was waiting for him to throw a shot and I'd land a body shot. I let go of one and felt it connected.
"The second round was just go to the body and work up top after to change the level a bit. It worked perfectly."
He was over the moon to be back on top, particularly with Olympic qualification high on the agenda.
"It's good, I had a lot of my friends and boxers I've fought with before asking me questions like 'are you not number one anymore?' I'd beaten him three times but I wasn't at that trial so it was fair enough.
"The Olympics is my main goal that I'm working towards now and then I'll probably turn professional. It's easy to get comfortable so it's good to have markers to test you on the way."
Today I knew I had to box my best and have a solid plan. I went in there and it worked.
Central Rotorua Boxing Club's Richardson has spent much of this year fighting in Europe and was confident he would bounce back from Saturday's loss.
"I was over there boxing for New Zealand in a few tournaments to lead us to the Olympic Games, it was pretty cool.
"First we went to Poland, then Italy for a training camp and then Spain for another tournament. I got a silver medal at the first tournament after beating the Poland champion. That was wicked, fighting a guy in front of his home crowd. I came up short in the final against a guy from Sweden."
Wellington's Ryan Scaife (left) puts Rotorua's Emile Richardson on the back foot. Photo / Ben Fraser
In Spain he competed at the International Boxam Elite tournament, in which he lost to eventual gold medallist Miguel Cuadrado of Spain.
Richardson said he learned a lot while overseas. He and Scaife are both going to Thailand to box in another tournament in three weeks' time.
"It opened the door to many opportunities but to see the level over there, it's incredible, the level of boxers overseas is impressive. There's not many [boxers to fight in New Zealand] so it was good to go overseas and fight in those top competitions."
Central Rotorua Boxing Club also had its next generation of boxing stars in action in the Junior and Cadet divisions at the New Zealand Golden Gloves.
Kevin Hay, 13, won the Cadets Boys' 54kg title and Naturelle Rangiawha won the Cadets Girls' 50kg. Maea Hay, 15, was unopposed in the Junior Girls' 63kg division.
Hunter Hay, 12, and Kahu Rangiawha, 13, were runners-up in the Cadets Boys' 40kg and 48kg respectively.
New Zealand Golden Gloves - Rotorua boxers' results
